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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

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

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.