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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.