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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each 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 cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection 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 and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.