2010 to 2012 will have massive Sun Storms and Solar flares causing

massive communication malfunction and mobile phone blackouts

Come the year 2010 -2012 and flares from the sun could cause a telecommunication blackout
forcing mobile phones and navigational systems to go off, says a leading scientist.

As 2010 approaches, more and more scientists around the world will be tuning their telescopes
towards the sun to try and detect sudden eruption of highly destructive solar flares which have the
ability to cause a "telecommunication blackout" across the globe.

"The solar flares are expected to be at its maximum intensity by the year 2010," said Markus
Aschwanden, a solar physicist at the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin
Advanced Technology Center (LMATC) in the United States of America.

"These solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) from the sun have the ability to travel all the
way to the earth and create a blackout of cellular phone services and navigational systems like the
GPS (Global Positioning System)", Aschwanden said on the sidelines of an international conference
on ''Challenges of Solar Cycle-24'' at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) here.
Solar flares and CMEs occur when magnetic energy built up in the sun's atmosphere is suddenly
released, he said.

These flares carrying high amount of energy, travel at high speeds and reach the earth in a matter
of hours.

It leaves little time to issue a warning, Aschwanden said adding solar flares can emit several (10
raised to the power 32) ergs of energy.

"Because of its ability to cause widespread damage on the Earth, more and more scientists are
keen to understand the phenomenon inside the sun which gives rise to such flares," he added.

The frequency of the flares coincides with the sun's 11-year cycle of solar activity. During periods of
minimum activity, active regions on the sun are small and rare and so, few solar flares are detected.

These flares increase in number as the sun approaches the maximum part of its cycle which is
scheduled to be around the year 2010.
"If a solar flare or a CME collides with the earth, it can cause a geomagnetic storm," Aschwanden
said adding large geomagnetic storms have caused electrical power outages and damaged
communication satellites.