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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature 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

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.