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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal 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 CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch 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

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.