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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.