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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

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

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.