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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

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

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

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.