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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period 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 blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged 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, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.