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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.