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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds 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 velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.