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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft 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, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.