Photos New Spots
"It's not just the reliance on satellite communications to control things like cell phones and ATMs. It's the use of GPS in many more functions: timing on financial transactions, by industry for farming, road-building, very high-accuracy surveying, deep ocean drilling...whether we have a small cycle or a big cycle," Biesecker told Discovery News. The appearance of the first sunspot associated with the new cycle does not resolve the dispute between experts about what the sun has in store for the next 11 years. Biesecker, who chaired a panel that was asked to come up with a forecast, said the group remains evenly split. One side predicts the sun's peak activity will occur in October 2011, with about 140 spots, and the other half expects a somewhat later and less intense solar max in August 2012, with 90 spots. "We're all pretty entrenched in our position," Biesecker said. "One camp will clearly have egg on its face when this is over." Related Links: Irene Klotz's blog: Space Diary NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Forum |
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