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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg 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 – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.