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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 spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of 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 that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

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

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

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

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.