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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

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

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.