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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, 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, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.