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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.