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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.