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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

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

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.