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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately 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 involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

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

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.