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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection 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 the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect 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 redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.