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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, 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, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

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

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.