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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.