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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's 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 huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track 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 over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained 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 struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.