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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.