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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic 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, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues 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, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 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.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.