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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began 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, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.