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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, 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 emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.