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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.