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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.