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

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

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years as 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 changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.