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For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

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

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained 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 was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.