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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

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

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "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 star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events 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 advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing 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. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.