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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. 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 comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.