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

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

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

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.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.