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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.