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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

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, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.