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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent 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 these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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