syrinx

The first sunspot of the year apparently signals the beginning of a new 11 year cycle of heightened solar activity.

Highly charged material ejected from the sun during solar storms causes power outages and disrupts satellite communications that can affect everything from taking cash out of an ATM to chatting on a cell phone. In addition, this solar cycle will be the first to occur in an era when global positioning system, or GPS, technology is widely used

tags: solar phone flares storms sunspots cycle gps atm cell communications disruption migraines