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To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (48060)	3/12/2006 7:45:49 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 116555

Got space satellite insurance? Sun storms could bring power cuts observer.guardian.co.uk Robin McKie, science editor Sunday March 12, 2006 The Observer Space storms are heading our way. Astronomers have announced that the next five or six years will see some of the most intense solar fireworks witnessed on Earth in recent times. The good news is that these electrical eruptions will bring intense displays of the Northern and Southern Lights to low latitudes. Areas, including southern England, which normally never witness such glories, can expect to see major auroral events glittering in the night skies. On the down side, solar storms can also disrupt power generators and electronic instruments. In the past, communication satellites have been wrecked by solar storms and on one occasion a storm triggered a major power-cut across most of Canada. The latest forecast predicting space storms is from a team of researchers led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the US and is based on studies of the sun's regular cycles of activity. Every 11 years, solar flares and sunspots reach a maximum and so, as a consequence, do auroral displays. Vast fluxes of electrical particles are blasted across space and batter Earth's upper atmosphere. The planet's magnetic field acts as a shield and these particles are swept down towards the poles where they produce the Northern and Southern Lights. At present, the sun is at its quietest. However, Dikpati and her colleagues have calculated that its activity will not only start to rise later this year, culminating in maximum activity around 2010 and 2011, but that this maximum will be one of the most intense every experienced. 'The next sunspot cycle will be 30 per cent to 50 per cent stronger than the previous one,' she said. The last time Earth experienced this kind of solar battering was in 1958 when the Northern Lights were sighted several times in Mexico. In those days, solar storms caused little damage. A repeat today, however, would have a very noticeable effect. Mobile phones, GPS devices, weather satellites and many other modern technologies would all be affected, Dikpati added.