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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.