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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"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 of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem 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 solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.