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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.