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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks 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 Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began 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, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.