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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat 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 solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

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

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.