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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly 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 marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

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

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.