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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

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

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.