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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.