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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, 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 Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded 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
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

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

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.