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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

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

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

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

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.