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

Re:Solar Cycle 24

[WilliamSChips]

You're getting it confused with the cycle where a science-fiction author makes ridiculous claims about environmentalists in a fiction book and the new Slashdot which stands for corporate imperialism eats it up like their SUVs eat up oil, and then accuse any government that does anything other than corporate subsidies, selling ourselves to China via the national debt, pork, or invading nations on claims of chemical and nuclear weapons when the only chemical weapons in Iraq are our white phosphorus of nannystatism which must be stopped in order to make government 'leaner' aka more corrupt. Maybe I should just do this, though.