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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.