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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

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

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

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

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.