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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 observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.