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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.