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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized 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, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

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 is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

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 much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

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 equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.