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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding 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 of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

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

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.