In accordance to NASA scientists, our sun is at a time period that is called solar minimum and than it has arrived earlier that predicted. Solar minimum is when sunspots have vanished from the sun’s surface and solar flare activity has gone to zero — solar minimum and maximum are two extremes in the sun’s 11-year activity cycle. We are currently experiencing the calm before a massive solar storm that is expected to happen in 2010-12. The last significant sun storm (solar max) was in 1958, which was the beginning of the Space Age, when the Sputnik and the first US satellite were being launched. Back then, the effects haven’t been noticed by the human population en masse, because there were no cell phones, GPS, and other technological devices we are armed with today. However, the fact that northern lights were spotted in Mexico 3 times did not escape the attention of the populace that something strange was going on.

So let us stop and imagine for a moment what it would be like, when the sun storm will black out radio waves, our mobile phones, the internet, and whatever else. Can you recall the last time you’ve seen a public phone? They are around, but are rare as polar bears and surreptitious! Perhaps it would be a good idea to call phone companies and demand more public phones to be installed.

more information:

The latest solar update
sun cycle forecast
sun storm prediction: NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center
learn more about solar maximum: shows what had happened in the last solar max as well