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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 recently – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.