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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.