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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 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.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.