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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.