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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly 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 of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.