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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.