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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies 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 even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.