Solar Storms Could Disrupt Television Broadcasts of 2012 Olympics
Solar activity is due to hit a peak in its eleven-year cycle during the London Olympics in 2012. Solar physicists warned on Tuesday that television sets around the globe could potentially go blank during the broadcast, however they are utilizing satellites to help predict solar storms that could disrupt communications on Earth.
Pictures of the sun will be taken every 0.75 seconds using ultra-violet light. In one day, the satellite will transmit the equivalent amount of data of 500,000 song downloads, and over time it will create more science data than any mission in NASA's entire history.
Scientists in Britain who are involved with the project say that the observations could help them to predict storms that might disrupt terrestrial communications.
The Solar Dynamics Observator is fitted with four AIA telescopes at the top. Solar arrays will collect energy from the sun to power the spacecraft. EVE will measure the tumultuous solar emissions, and the HMI will measure the magnetic field on the Sun's visible surface.
Professor Richard Harrison of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK, said:
"Sun's magnetic field is all over the place and huge clouds of energy escape from time to time in coronal mass ejections.
'These can carry a billion tonnes of solar material into space at nearly a million miles per hour. Such events can disable satellites, cause power grid failures on Earth and disrupt communications.Our Sun is just coming out of a deep minimum, which is a period of very little activity. Whether this means we will have an unusual maximum in 2012, we just don't know.
What is certain is the chances of general disruption will be far higher during this period and could disrupt coverage of the Olympics."
Harrison noted that missions like this from the SDO can't prevent solar activity, but could help us prepare for it. Companies may be warned in advance to switch off vital satellite circuits and technology systems could be improved on Earth.
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http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2010/02/scientists-warn-solar-activity-could.html
I've heard also the same thing. We've been in a solar minimum that's the least active cycle that's taken place in the entire century, so scientists are worried that when the next solar maximum comes, it will somewhat "make up" for the lull-the calm before the storm, so to speak-and make the coming solar storms stronger than usual. It is predicted through 2012 to 2014. No one can say for sure what will happen in 2012 but indeed a super solar storm would be a massive natural disaster, and destroy tons of satellites and other sensitive equipment that would take tons of time and money to fix/replace.