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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.