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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.