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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once 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 sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.