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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase 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 may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.