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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.