Solar flares might knock out cell phones, communications

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Signs in The Sun, The Moon and The Stars

Solar flares might knock out cell phones, communications*

Activity building to crescendo some scientists say could be cataclysmic

Posted: February 17, 2007

Solar flare activity is expected to build for the next three years to a
crescendo that some scientists say could be cataclysmic, causing a
telecommunication blackout that would down mobile phones and
navigational systems.

"The solar flares are expected to be at its maximum intensity by the
year 2010," Markus Aschwanden, a solar physicist at the Solar and
Astrophysics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center,
told the Hindu News. "These solar flares and Coronoal Mass Ejections
from the sun have the ability to travel all the way to the earth and
create a black-out of cellular phone services and navigational systems
like the GPS.

Solar flares and CMEs occur when magnetic energy built up in the Sun's
atmosphere is suddenly released. The flares carrying high amount of
energy, travel at high speeds and reach the Earth in a matter of hours.

"If a solar flare or a CME collides with the Earth, it can cause a
geomagnetic storm," Aschwanden said, adding large geomagnetic storms
have caused electrical power outages and damaged communication
satellites. "A few years back, these solar flares destroyed the
satellite Galaxy 4."

That outage in 1998 resulted in widespread loss of pager service and
numerous other communication problems.