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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, 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 endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, 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 to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.