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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.