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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise 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 can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began 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 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.