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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 in orbit last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.