The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) is analyzing a possible threat brought on by a new 11 year cycle of sunspot activity. The new activity, known as Solar Cycle 24, is slow-building and predicted to reach a head in 2011 or 2012, wracking the Sun's surface with incredibly violent storms.

Of Solar Cycle 24, Douglas Biesecker, from the Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA, said, "it's an early omen of solar storms that will gradually increase over the next few years."

The effects of the storm could be felt all the globe over, interfering or disabling anything from military communications to GPS systems, cellular networks, power grids and anything and everything relying on these kinds of utilities.

Cellular News, via Textually