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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.