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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by 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.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.