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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.