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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt 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 per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.