Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.
This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.
According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.
It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.
Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.
"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."
Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.
CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.
"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.
"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."
If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.
There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.
"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.
Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.
Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.
In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.
It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.
At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.
Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.
The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.
"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.
"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.
