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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

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

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.