"Solar Storms"

BBC - Science in Action
25 August 2006

The solar activity of our Sun tends to run in 11 year cycles and all the signs point to a new cycle starting right now. Solar Cycle 24 will be characterised by sunspots, dark features, moving across the surface of the sun, solar flares and geomagnetic storms. Astronomers now have some the most sophisticated instruments developed at their disposal to study the activity. Jack Harvey, astronomer at the National Solar Observatory at Tuscon, Arizona, says that the last couple of cycles have been relatively weak but predicts that this one is likely to be a big one.