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Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.