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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship 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 nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.