Solar Weather Forecast

For John, BLUF:  Alarm over solar flares overstated at this time, but a problem is coming, some day.

Columnist Jeff Foust, at The Space Review has a discussion of space weather and the situation as we approach the "solar max" of the eleven year solar cycle.

The good news, though, is that this upcoming solar max appears to be relatively weak. An updated solar cycle prediction released last week by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center concludes that solar activity, as measured by sunspots, will peak this fall, but at the lowest level in over a century. While severe solar storms can still take place regardless of the amount of activity, the prediction indicates that the Sun will be less active in this upcoming peak than previous ones.

The importance of space weather is that our society depends more and more on systems that can be vulnerable to solar flares.

But a solar storm doesn’t have to be that severe to cause potentially billions of dollars in damage. “Depending upon system conditions, even a relatively minor storm could have an adverse impact,” said Kevin Forbes, associate professor of economics at Catholic University of America, at the Marshall/TechAmerica forum.

Regards  —  Cliff