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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began 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.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies 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, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.