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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.