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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines 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, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.