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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star 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 fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

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