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It looks like good news for Ham Radio in the coming years. NASA is now predicting a massive solar storm, possibly as big as the last massive storm in 1958. This should generate all sorts of wacky effects on things like cell phones, satellite TV and radio. But for Ham, it may mean some wicked propogation. Oh, and potentially we of the lower 48 will get to see the Aurora Borealis as the storms energy hits our upper atmosphere. Here's a bit from the article, which can be found on NASA's Web Site:
Follow the link for the full article with a good explanation of what the solar cycle is and how it works and affects us here on Earth.
" March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.
Like the quiet before a storm.
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.
see captionThat was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies."
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