In a report funded by NASA, NOAA (U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) has issued a formal, public prediction that ‘A new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928 and its peak is still four years away, after a slow start last December, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Even so, Earth could get hit by a devastating solar storm at any time, with potential damages from the most severe level of storm exceeding $1 trillion. The prediction, published in a report at www.spaceweather.com, continues: ‘The panel predicts the upcoming Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a daily sunspot number of 90. If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest cycle since number 16, which peaked at 78 daily sunspots in 1928, and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began. The NOAA solar panel’s predictions appear to lessen the potential risk to the high energy electrical grid system of 2012-13 Solar flares set out in a Jan. 2009 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report. According to a New Scientist article on the NAS report, ‘The […]