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

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

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.