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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles 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 can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.