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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase 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 CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While 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 effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.