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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.