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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.