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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

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 frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere 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 a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

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

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.