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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – 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 millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.