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

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

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.