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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights 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.