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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.