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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison 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 TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.