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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's 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 that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

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

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.