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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing 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, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.