NASA Announces we have started the 11 Year Solar Flare Cycle and Magnetic Shift to Peak in 2012
The next 11-year cycle of solar storms started this March and will peak in late 2011 or mid-2012 – up to a year later than expected – according to a forecast issued today by NOAA's Space Environment Center in coordination with an international panel of solar experts.
More bad news... recent solar flares are ten times greater than anything previously recorded. And weather patterns are responding with serious consequences. There are direct links between abnormal weather on the earth, shifts in the sun's magnetic field, and major solar flares.
"The Space Environment Center's space weather alerts, warnings, and forecasts are a critical component of NOAA's seamless stewardship of the Earth's total environment, from the Sun to the sea," said retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
During an active solar period, violent eruptions occur more often on the Sun. Solar flares and vast explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, shoot energetic photons and highly charged matter toward Earth, jolting the planet's ionosphere and geomagnetic field, potentially affecting power grids, critical military and airline communications, satellites, Global Positioning System signals, and even threatening astronauts with harmful radiation.
While experts are Split Over Intensity - they agree that solar activity affects the Earth's Climate far more than do greenhouse gases.