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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

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

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.