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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

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

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able 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 trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information 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 totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

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