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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 spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.