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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

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

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

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

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.