Monday, June 14, 2010
Increased Solar Flare Activity May Disrupt Satellite, GPS
From Cornell University
“Since 2004 and during a period of minimum solar flare activity, an increasingly complex and brittle technical infrastructure has been installed for communications, power and navigation. During the upcoming period of solar activity, these systems will be tested for the first time,” says Paul M. Kintner, an expert on GPS and satellite communication and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University.
“We have been observing the sun during the space age for only 50 years and we do not fully understand its behavior, especially the extremes of its behavior. In 2006 there was an eruption of solar radiation 100 times more intense than expected that temporarily silenced many GPS receivers over the sun-lit Earth. What is the ultimate limit of such eruptions of solar energy? Is it 1,000 times more intense, 10,000 times more intense? We just don’t know.
“For the past 50 or 60 years, the sun has been quite predictable. In recent years, it has become less predictable, which calls into question our understanding of how the sun operates and our ability to predict is impact on technology.
Read the full article here.
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