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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

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

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.