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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg 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 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.