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

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

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as 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 significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems 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 our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.