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For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat 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 many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage 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 nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

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