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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.