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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.