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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 in orbit last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.