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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent 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 features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities 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 a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the 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 natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us 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.