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For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining 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 our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.