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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass 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 maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.