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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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