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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.