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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly 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 our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight 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 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.