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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

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

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.