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

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

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.