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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.