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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.