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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

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 blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

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.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.