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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in 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 was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy 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 happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.