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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 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 sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy 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 happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.