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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.