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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs 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 our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.