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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire 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 of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data 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 worked together to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.