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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. 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 quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

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 magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect 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 satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.