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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important 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 solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.