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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

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