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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger 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 our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, 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 journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.