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

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 research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star 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 plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, 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 much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.