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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.