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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites 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 watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.