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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.