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

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

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.