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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes 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.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

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