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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly 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 involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting 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 our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius 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 respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

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

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.