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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as 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 our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being 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 malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.