Scientists Issue Alarm of Intensified Solar ActivityChinese astronomers who observed on Tuesday the most severe outbreak of solar activity in four years have issued alarm of disastrous space weather in the coming 12 days.Yan Yihua, chief scientist with the Beijing Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said they recorded the peak value of solar activity as massive solar energy was released at 6:13 a.m. (Beijing Time), which was about 3,000 billion times of the explosion of atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan by the United States during World War II. Massive geomagnetic storms and high-energy particles from the solar activity interrupt satellites, telecommunications facilities, power transmission, and oil transmission through pipelines, Yan said. "We spotted Tuesday sunspots moving from the eastern part of the Sun, indicating big solar activity, or release of huge energy in succession in the coming 13 days," Yan told Xinhua in an interview. The Sun has entered its 23rd 11-year cycle of solar activity recorded by astronomers, experts said. |
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