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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it 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 does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

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