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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms 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 traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

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