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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

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

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day 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 a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions 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.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.