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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

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

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.