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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.