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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.