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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track 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

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 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 comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.