A solar forecast

Solar activity, which waxes and wanes in an 11-year cycle, will most likely begin its next round in March 2008 and peak sometime between late 2011 and mid 2012, predicts the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo.

During the peak of activity, eruptions such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections hurl X rays, ultraviolet light, and billion-ton clouds of charged particles into space.