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

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

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger 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, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.