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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to 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 swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.