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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately 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 involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections 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 displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.