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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source 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

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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