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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.