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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

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

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could 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 frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.