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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.