Spaceweather.com provides news and information about the Sun-Earth connection, with forecasts of solar flares and geomagnetic storms, plus daily images of the Sun showing the number and location of active sunspots. Click the Spaceweather.com header or logo, for news of current space weather activity on Earth and links to other solar activity monitoring websites.
The sunspot group AR 10720 formed as a smallish dot on Jan. 11 2005 and grew to the size of Jupiter by Jan. 15. That's about the size of eight Earth's across!
Spaceweather.com has an impressive collection of aurora photographs sent in by amateur photographers. This photograph comes from the Nov. 5 - 6, 2001 Aurora Gallery. It was taken by A. Klimowski , Rapid City, South Dakota, USA. Click the photograph to go to the Aurora Gallery.

This photograph was featured at Spaceweather.com on 4th April 2006. It was taken by Andy Dodson in New Zealand the day before as solar astronomers were transfixed by this spectacular prominence on the sun.

There are many excellent sources of information about space weather and solar storms, but one of the most comprehensive, non-technical, websites on the subject is Dr. Sten Odenwald's award winning Space Weather website. There is also an excellent book on space weather called The 23rd Cycle: Learning to live with a stormy star. This book is available at this website in its entirety in PDF and searchable text.

"Space weather has been blamed as the cause or contributor to more than $500 million in insurance claims between 1997 and 2001, and in numerous other cases, satellite companies lost some of their capacity and redundancy in mishaps that could not be claimed. Since January 1998, the insurers of satellites have paid more than $3.8 billion for 22 total mission losses and 91 partial losses; uninsured losses over the same period exceeded that amount. In the grimmest of recent years, 1998 and 2000 the value of insurance claims exceeded the amount of money collected in premiums."
Excert from "Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather (2002).Click on the picture of the book to read the book online. Recommendation BUY!

Space weather generates Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) that affect electrical systems on the earth's surface, including power and power transformer systems. Where the land is resistant, oil and gas pipelines form a system of long conductors that allow electrical currents to flow more easily. With the accumulative action of many magnetic disturbances pipeline corrosion is significantly accelerated. The massive oil spillage that took place in Alaska, March 2006 could have been caused by Space Weather. Click on the image of the BP oil pipeline in Alaska to obtain general information on the ground effects of space weather.

For most people the evolutionary aspect of cosmic energy does not interest them, but cosmic rays interfering with their car electronics is certainly something that would make them pay attention! Car manufacturers are now having to be concerned with the increase of cosmic rays and specifically neutrons from space. As one report puts it, "Neutron-induced firm errors have progressed from being a nuisance to being a significant problem". This folks is the reality of the New Golden Age, things will NOT remain the same. Click here for short article, and click the image for a longer indepth technical review of the situation.

NASA scientists announced that solar activity will start to dramatically increase from 2007 or 2008 and peak in 2012 and be 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), who says "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one". There was an historic Solar Max in 1958, anything similar will have massive effect on cell phones, GPS, TV Networks, weather satellites and many other modern technologies. Click the Solar Max image for more details of this significant scientific prediction by researchers.

Since 2004, the sun has been in a prolonged period of low sunspot activity. In March 2009, NASA decided to launch one or more studies about the ongoing solar minimum and solicited proposals. See the article, NASA solicits new studies on the current solar minimum, from which we can find the following NASA quote;
"In 2009, we are in the midst of the minimum of solar activity that marks the end of Solar Cycle 23. As this cycle comes to an end we are recognizing, in retrospect, that the Sun has been extraordinarily quiet during this particular Solar Cycle minimum. This is evidenced in records of both solar activity and the response to it of the terrestrial space environment."
Yet this solar minimum has not ended and now there are now two main concerns. 1. We are on the verge of an historic blow out as it is known that the sun can take a long break before extreme activity. 2. This low sunspot activity could lead to global cooling, or a new ice age. See NASA News article, Deep Solar Minimum.

The spotless sun

NASA Space Weather News

Despite the prolonged solar minimum, NASA sponsored the US National Academy of Sciences to research the impact of an extreme Space Weather event. This study describes how extreme solar eruptions could have severe consequences for communications, power grids and other technology on Earth and the potential damage from significant space weather during the next 20 years, see NASA-Funded Study Reveals Hazards of Severe Space Weather. Announced in January 2009, this report has been continously reported since by various newspapers and other media outlets. Headlines like, Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe, are supported by the documentary-drama Solar Storm: Perfect Disaster, which was originally made for Discovery Channel but it can now be found on Youtube in it's entirety. It dramatically depicts the consequences of a massive Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun burning out transformers and taking down national power grids around the world and the drama involved as authorities have to make critical decisions. Interestingly, Mayan Elders and metaphysiacal sources are also warning that there will be massive solar disturbances, but it must be understood that this is expected to drive massive evolutionary change.