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

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

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, 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 eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.