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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

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

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.