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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

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