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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

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

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.