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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km 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 vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.