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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life 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 analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.