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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 into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.