[South Florida DX Association] Quiet Before the Storm

[Bill Marx]

>From Leon K2EWB


March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all
but
vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense
solar
maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi
Dikpati
of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot
cycle
will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct,
the
years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the
historic
Solar Max of 1958.

Take a few minutes and read the full story at:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm