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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.