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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.