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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance 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 them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.