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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.