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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.