Sun Spots Intensifying, Has Potential To Knock Out Cellphone, Satellite, and GPS

* picture from NASA.gov

Summarized from NASA.gov:

On Friday January 20, 2012 ... the sun hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth that sparked a strong geomagnetic storm and beautiful aurorae at high latitudes. Many commercial flights were able to see it. Late Sunday, the sun unleashed yet another Earth-bound CME after a flare erupted over a particularly active sunspot region — the CME was expected to hit Earth on Tuesday. This series of flares and CMEs have ignited the strongest period of solar storms since 2005, according to an NOAA space weather advisory. More CME activity is expected in 2012 with heightened activity around the summer and winter solstice. Depending on where and with what intensity the coronal ejections "land" ~ satellite communications as well as GPS and cellphone reception could occur.