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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.