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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.