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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

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

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.