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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, 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 disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.