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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

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

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.