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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by 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.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. 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, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.