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

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

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could 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 significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.