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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

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

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated 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 states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.