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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass 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 with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.