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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.