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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 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.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.