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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed 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 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," 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 near-Earth space," he concludes.