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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.