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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering 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 functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

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

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature 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 and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.