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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.