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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when 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 changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

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 totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.