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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

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

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian 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 that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

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