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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot 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 shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.