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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – 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 – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.