Washington (Platts)--7Jan2008
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is warning that a
new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity that could pose a threat to the
electricity grid, critical military, civilian and airline communications and
GPS signals, has begun.
The agency said the new cycle's first sunspot appeared late Thursday in
the sun's Northern Hemisphere.
"This sunspot is like the first robin of spring," Douglas Biesecker, a
solar physicist with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said in a
statement. "In this case, it's an early omen of solar storms that will
gradually increase over the next few years."
A sunspot is an area of highly organized magnetic activity on the surface
of the sun, the agency said, adding that the new 11-year cycle, called Solar
Cycle 24, is expected to build gradually, with the number of sunspots and
solar storms reaching a peak in 2011 or 2012.
During a solar storm, highly charged material ejected from the sun may
head toward Earth, where it can bring down power grids, disrupt critical
communications, and threaten astronauts with harmful radiation, NOAA said.
Storms also can knock out commercial communications satellites and swamp
Global Positioning System signals. Routine activities such as talking on a
cell phone or getting money from an ATM machine could suddenly halt over a
large part of the globe, the agency added.
"Our growing dependence on highly sophisticated, space-based technologies
means we are far more vulnerable to space weather today than in the past,"
said Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, under secretary of commerce for oceans
and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, said.
"NOAA's space weather monitoring and forecasts are critical for the
nation's ability to function smoothly during solar disturbances," he added.
|
