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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

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

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.