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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during 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 would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.