These events occur every 11 years. The industrialized world has had electric grids for many, many of
these periods and there are only a handful of instances where large numbers of households found
themselves without power. The electric generation and distribution industry has been improving from it's
beginning it's ability to cope with this peak in the sunspot cycle. These events are so relatively
insignificant that the vast majority of the population has lived through them every 11 years without ever
noticing anything more significant than occasional strange radio and TV reception. Our radios don't burn
up, nor do all those AM, FM, short wave, and TV receivers. My computer didn't burn to a crisp or even
notice the last event 11 years ago.
What IS different this time around is the extent to which satellites touch our lives. There are a vast number
of services we now take for granted that depend on these satellites, like cable TV, pagers, cell phones,
and the Internet. Eleven years ago we either didn't have these services or they were mostly provided by
wire lines. There is a great danger to satellites from this event; but designers of satellites for the last 10
years have known about the sunspot cycle and have designed in what they believe is necessary to protect
the satellites. Sure, there may be some outages and disruptions from time to time; but unless this coming
cycle peak is 3 or 4 times stronger than the last two, it isn't that big a deal.
Offered by Ron.