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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

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

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began 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.

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

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.