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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.