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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number 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 CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

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

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.