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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.