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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information 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 was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.