Indeed there is never a dull moment in the universe and this particular spectacular activity, which is all set to happen on the star of stars, the sun, is worth noticing. In the series of solar storms, which occur on sun time and again the next 11-year cycle of solar storms is likely to begin in March 2008 and will continue till 2019. These solar storms would reach their peak either in late 2011 or mid-2012. The NOAA Space Environment Center has issued these forecasts during its annual Space Weather Workshop that has just concluded in Boulder, Columbia.
During an active solar period, sun witnesses violent eruptions on regular intervals. Coronal mass ejections, solar flares and vast explosions, continue to hurl energetic photons and highly charged matter toward Earth, which eventually jolt the planet’s geomagnetic and ionosphere field. As a result critical military, airline communications, satellites, power grids and even Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are severely affected. Sometime even astronauts face the danger of being exposed to harmful radiation. But the same storms illuminate night skies with magnificent sheets of red and green, which are known as auroras, or northern or southern lights and thousands turn up to watch nature at its best.
Number of sunspots that are the dark blotches on the sun that mark areas of heightened magnetic activity help in measuring the solar cycle intensity level. More sunspots indicate high intensity of a solar storm. Only twice before the Scientists have predicted such solar activities in 1989 and in 1996.
Source: Physorg
