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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.