parallelnormal

A bumpy ride ahead for sats and power grids. (Image: NASA)

NASA today published a forecast for a “big and intense” new solar cycle in 2011 or 2012, which its suggests will wreak havoc on satellite GPS and telecommunications, power grids and air traffic.

NASA says the next solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, “could make itself felt as never before.”

We are now at the end of Solar Cycle 23 (see graphic, and excerpts, below), according to the U.S. space agency.

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clipped from science.nasa.gov Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning It may not look like much, but “this patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.