Posted on 04/26/2007 1:01:47 PM PDT by Islander7
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The peak of the next sunspot cycle is expected in late 2011 or mid-2012 -- potentially affecting airline flights, communications satellites and electrical transmissions. But forecasters can't agree on how intense it will be.
A 12-member panel charged with forecasting the solar cycle said Wednesday it is evenly split over whether the peak will be 90 sunspots or 140 sunspots.
The government's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado, tracks space weather and forecasts its changes, which can affect millions of dollars worth of activities such as oil drilling, car navigation systems and astronauts.
Half of the specialists predicted a moderately strong cycle of 140 sunspots expected to peak in October of 2011, while the rest called for a moderately weak cycle of 90 sunspots peaking in August of 2012.
"We're hoping to achieve a consensus sometime in the next six to 12 months," said Douglas Biesecker, a space environment center scientist who is chairman of the forecast panel.
An average solar cycle ranges from 75 to 155 sunspots.
During an active solar period, violent eruptions occur more often on the sun, the agency said. Solar flares and vast explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, shoot highly charged matter toward Earth.
Making these predictions is important for many businesses, which have been asking for a forecast for nearly a year, Biesecker said.
Just like coastal residents want a hurricane forecast as early as possible, so do those affected by solar activity, said Joseph Kunches, chief of forecast and analysis at the center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The Mayan calendar ends at 2012. Obviously they had advance knowledge of the sunspots ending the world in 2012.
I hope that it's not as devastating as the Y2K issue was.
Minor correction: sunspots nearly disappeared, not "solar activity."
Never question Bruce Dickinson!
The Mayan Calendar ends in 2012.
What? Scientists who can’t agree on something? Say it ain’t so!
After 2012, the big cool down and the discrediting of the anthropogenic global warming fraud.
Just in time for the end of the Fifth World and the beginning of the Sixth World (Mayan calender)
No, solar activity really nearly disappeared. Of course the sun kept converting H to He, but when we say solar activity, we don't normally include the constant fusion that's going on -- we instead mean sunspots, and all the things that seem associated with their presence, things like CMEs, bursts of X-rays, radio bursts and flares.
Just in time for the end of the Fifth World and the beginning of the Sixth World (Mayan calender)
thanks, bfl
So much for Global Warming. Based on the last few winters I'd say it's already stopped.
“Global Warming” to cease shortly afterwards.
Did you know the Mayan calendar ends in 2012?
I heard the Mayan calendar ends in 2012.
The Mayan Calendar ends in 2012.
Can it be true that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012?
Thailand.
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