For those that have been aware of the changes in mind of the experts on solar activity about this particular cycle, you will have noticed that they've changed their minds rather often. A matter of two years ago we were being persuaded that this one could be much a repeat of 1960's activity, and even of the events of 1859.

Well what's all the fuss about possible solar storms? One of the effects cause fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field. Take a long conductor, such as a power transmission line, and in this scenario a large circulating current can be induced. In 1859 this burnt out telegraph lines, in 2014 or such it could trip out power grids. More of an issue in countries with long distances between power generation and the users such as Canada and the US. High latitudes also increase the problems, so it could be the Canadians and the NE USA that take the biggest potential hits. (March 1989 Quebec blackouts as an example caused by a storm?)

There was a programme exploring this scenario in true disaster movie style a couple of years back aired here in the UK, that we watched with some amusement at my Radio Club.

The second issue would that of CME's – Coronal Mass Ejections – that send high energy particles from the Sun, and if they happen to hit the magnetosphere the wrong way could damage satellites, or at least disrupt them for several hours. It's also like in this case to cause a blackout of HF radio communications, so with satellites out of service (no GPS, no communications) and no backup HF the Air Transport industry could be struggling.

Note that this all is speculation. Forecasting the weather on the Sun is about exact a science as it is down here. We were promised a BBQ summer last year and we had floods, now the Met Office are doing the same and I've bought a new pair of waterproof boots. Am I right in noting that some of the worst winters here in the UK have coincided with solar minimum years? Look at the spot counts for 1947, 1963 and last year (bad summer, cold winter)?

We've only being observing the Sun properly for last couple of hundred years, so we've only got figures for sunspots covering that. As mentioned previously, a dearth of sunspots does seem to indicate a change of output, more spots, more sunshine. An analogy is that a fast flowing stream has plenty of eddies and slow flowing rivers have few.

You can of course follow the spot count on the NOAA website, or pick it off the ARRL's www.arrl.org or even follow Neil Clarke G0CAS's musings on the matter http://www.g0cas.demon.co.uk/ . With an 11 year cycle, we'll have another couple of years to determine just how good this cycle will be, but it seems to be picking up nicely thank you.

Will you be designing in immunity to your new products? Will RFID product handle high noise environments? Is this just a (solar) storm in a teacup?

Your comments are very welcome – it seems the last Blog has had a good following. I'm looking forward for some nice aurora again visible at 54 degrees North, and of course some very nice DX on 6m. Just not yet that is.