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Politics : Clinton -- doomed & wagging, Japan collapses, Y2K bug, etc
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To: SOROS who wrote (302)9/15/1998 1:43:00 PM
From: SOROS   of 1151
 
Business Week -August 17, 1998

It's the Year 2000's other technological problem: Space Weather. While computers and the Y2k problem grab headlines, some scientists are worrying that natural phenomena in space could pose problems for
scores of satellites in earth orbit at the turn of the century.

Extraordinary sunspot activity known as the solar max, which occurs every 11 years, will be back in then - time to coincide with the last year (1999) of the major Leonid showers, which bring storms of 5,000
meteorites an hour.

Solar changes can expand the upper atmosphere, increasing the drag on satellites closest to earth and possibly knocking them out of orbit, causing them to burn up.

What to do? Satellites-often cylindrical in shape with wing-like flat panels-can reduce the chances of being hit by turning their smallest side toward the storms. They can also cut power to avoid short circuits. Although concerned, private industry foresees no catastrophe. But the U.S. Space Command is less sanguine. (Stan Crook)
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