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<blockquote data-quote="Analoguesat" data-source="post: 248505" data-attributes="member: 176362">Scientist have had more hints that the next sunspot cycle will be&nbsp; much more active.The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft may have glimpsed the first sunspot of the next 11-year solar cycle. It has come a tad early, and it may mean that the next sunspot cycle will be a particularly active one.&quot;It's kind of like the first swallow of spring,&quot; says David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US. &quot;It's the first indication that the next cycle is starting.&quot;Sunspots are formed when magnetic fields that have been made deep inside the Sun become buoyant, rise up through the Sun and erupt through the surface, causing a dark, relatively cool, spot.The number of sunspots varies on a period of about 11 years, the same timescale that the Sun's magnetic poles reverse direction. The next 11-year cycle was predicted to begin by March 2007.But an unusual sunspot on 30 July may signal an early start of that cycle. For the past several years, sunspots in the Sun's southern hemisphere have been oriented north-south. This one, however, was magnetically backwards and had a south-north bent.New Scientist - full report:<a href="http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn9778&amp;feedId=space_rss20" target="_blank">http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn9778&amp;feedId=space_rss20</a>Now we know that during high periods of solar activity our satellites (comms and survey plus miltary no doubt) can suffer damage from static discharges,<a href="http://www.sat-index.com/failures/autumn2003.html" target="_blank">http://www.sat-index.com/failures/autumn2003.html</a>shows a long list of damge caused to satellites 3 years ago.......</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Analoguesat, post: 248505, member: 176362"] Scientist have had more hints that the next sunspot cycle will be much more active. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft may have glimpsed the first sunspot of the next 11-year solar cycle. It has come a tad early, and it may mean that the next sunspot cycle will be a particularly active one. "It's kind of like the first swallow of spring," says David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US. "It's the first indication that the next cycle is starting." Sunspots are formed when magnetic fields that have been made deep inside the Sun become buoyant, rise up through the Sun and erupt through the surface, causing a dark, relatively cool, spot. The number of sunspots varies on a period of about 11 years, the same timescale that the Sun's magnetic poles reverse direction. The next 11-year cycle was predicted to begin by March 2007. But an unusual sunspot on 30 July may signal an early start of that cycle. For the past several years, sunspots in the Sun's southern hemisphere have been oriented north-south. This one, however, was magnetically backwards and had a south-north bent. New Scientist - full report: [url]http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn9778&feedId=space_rss20[/url] Now we know that during high periods of solar activity our satellites (comms and survey plus miltary no doubt) can suffer damage from static discharges, [url]http://www.sat-index.com/failures/autumn2003.html[/url] shows a long list of damge caused to satellites 3 years ago....... [/QUOTE]

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