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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star 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 blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something 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 how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.