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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.