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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. 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 developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.