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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained 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 concludes.