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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would 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 huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.