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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.