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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.