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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

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

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

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.