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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South 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 eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it 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," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison 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 – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.