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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.