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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 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 reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

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

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.