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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

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 storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

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 has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs 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 weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.