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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.