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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.