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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft 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 the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.