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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time 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 storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.