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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.