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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move 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 when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.