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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful 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 was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed 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

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began 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 – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

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