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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered 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 totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.