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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 – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.