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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. 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 low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring 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 our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.