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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.