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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

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

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.