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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing 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 fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, 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 solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.