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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – 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 explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.