Scientists Predict Big Solar Cycle

An anonymous reader pointed us at a post on the Physorg blog, which discusses the possibility of an upcoming period of intense solar weather. We've discussed this before, but increasingly the evidence looks like 'Solar Cycle 24' (due to start in 2010 or so) is going to make life interesting here on earth. From the post: "Hathaway explains: 'When a gust of solar wind hits Earth's magnetic field, the impact causes the magnetic field to shake. If it shakes hard enough, we call it a geomagnetic storm.' In the extreme, these storms cause power outages and make compass needles swing in the wrong direction. Auroras are a beautiful side-effect. Hathaway and Wilson looked at records of geomagnetic activity stretching back almost 150 years and noticed something useful:. 'The amount of geomagnetic activity now tells us what the solar cycle is going to be like 6 to 8 years in the future,' says Hathaway."

Comments

Al Gore

[nurb432]

Will just go back on Oprah claim its people that are causing it and we need to act now.

Oh, and sell more books.

Curse You George Bush!

[Columcille]

If Bush had only gotten his environmental policies right, things like this wouldn't be happening. Surely this has to be a human-induced event like global warming, it cannot possibly be a natural phenomenon!