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

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

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

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

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.