'Solar Max' Will Mar Millennium(the Peak of the Sunspot Cycle Should Coincide with the Turn of the Century, Possibly Causing Trouble with Telecommunications, Satellite Components, and Global Positioning systems)(Brief Article)

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Scientists are forecasting `space weather' in an attempt to cope with a worrisome peak in solar flares expected to coincide with the arrival of the third millennium.

Call it a "solar El Nino," an increasingly troublesome aspect of the sun that should make itself known about the year 2000. That's when our nearest star will reach a condition called solar max, the peak of the sunspot cycle. The cycle will wreak mischief not only with navigation and telecommunications technology but also with increasingly important electric power grids.

Solar max is the culmination of a cycle in the sun's thermonuclear reactions that has persisted with clockwork precision for uncounted centuries. About every 11 years, the sun's energy peaks, …