Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: macker who wrote (47776)	6/2/1999 1:14:00 PM
From: JeffA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90042

For those who worry about Y2K here's an additional worry! LOL (why you worry about that which you cannot control is beyond my comprehension but this will add to it! LOL) Ferocious solar storm to herald millennium Astronomers fear widespread disruptions June 1, 1999 Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this story: At least there will be warnings Cell phones may be vulnerable RELATED STORIES, SITES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHICAGO (AP) -- Computer date confusion about the Year 2000 is not the only problem Earth's technology is going to face when the new year rolls in. Astronomers say they're also worried about an angry sun. In January, just as computers around the world are coping with the Y2K bug, the sun will enter the most violent and disruptive phase of its 11-year cycle. Massive bursts of energy from the sun could mean celebrating the new millennium in the dark, with dead cellular phones. Ships and planes relying on satellites for navigation might have to haul out old-fashioned maps. Even spacewalking astronauts could be at risk, according to reports Monday at the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Researchers, using new techniques, are forecasting the sun's cycle to peak during the months of January to April. The sun is expected to be busy with solar flares and coronal mass ejections -- solar explosions that can equal a million 100 megaton hydrogen bombs. At least there will be warnings Waves of solar energy can trigger power blackouts, block some radio communications and create phantom commands capable of sending satellites spinning out of their proper orbits. There were two pieces of good news: The solar cycle is not expected to be as severe as some in the past, and, for the first time, there may be some warning, thanks to a government satellite that will detect bursts of solar energy and send about an hour's notice, said JoAnn Joselyn of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That warning, posted on the Internet and relayed through a special system, will give power companies time to align circuits to minimize or avoid damage from electrical surges, she said. Satellite operators can power down equipment or prepare to send corrective signals to their spacecraft. Scientists have plotted 23 solar cycles, using historic and modern measurements. But the current cycle may be the most disruptive ever because much of the vulnerable communications technology now in use is new and has not been exposed to maximum solar activity, Joselyn said. "The explosion in technology is intersecting with an extremely disturbed space environment," Joselyn said. "There is much higher risk now because we depend more on technology that is vulnerable." Cell phones may be vulnerable Joselyn said energy bursts from the sun can cause an electrical charge to build up on the surface of satellites, triggering phantom signals. In an earlier solar cycle, she said, small rocket thrusters on a satellite suddenly started firing, sending the spacecraft out of position. Control of another satellite was lost when its gyroscopes were disrupted. Joselyn said cellular telephones may be vulnerable because they can use the ionosphere -- the region of electrically charged gases in the upper atmosphere -- to send radio signals, and bursts from the sun can disturb the ionosphere. Some cellular phone systems depend on satellites that are at risk too. Solar energy eruptions can cause warm air to surge up from the Earth. That can drag some satellites to lower orbits, forcing satellite operators to use rocket fuel to reposition the spacecraft. Worldwide navigation, for ships and airplanes, relies heavily on the Global Positioning Satellite system, which uses a fleet of satellites that can be affected by the sun, Joselyn said. "I am worried about the GPS more than anything else," she said. "We're starting to land airplanes with that system now." Electromagnetic energy from the sun can send huge waves of electrical energy surging along power lines, shorting circuits and burning out equipment. A 1989 solar storm caused a province-wide blackout in Quebec, and coils in a transformer station in Salem, New Jersey, melted and caught fire, causing a regional outage. Astronauts generally are safe inside the space shuttle or the International Space Station, but future missions to the moon or Mars will have to guard to solar radiation bursts. "On the moon, they could get enough radiation to be lethal," said Joselyn. "If we fly to Mars, we'll have to consider the hazardous radiation from the sun." Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.