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For Aditya-L1, the year 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 the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect 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, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated 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.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.