More massive solar flares are supposed to hit Earth next week and potentially fry satellite communications and storage of all kinds, including GPS and cloud storage.

Solar flares trigger mass ejections of charged particles that bombard satellites and when it hits the earth, the power grid. In June 2011, a massive flare triggered the most massive eruption ever seen on the sun, causing massive disruptions to satellite communications.

With next week’s solar flares, I can just imagine the voice in my GPS repeating itself “Recalculating… Recalculating…. Recalculating!” as I attempt to maneuver through unfamiliar territory, filled with a new kind of hubris that makes think I’m wasting time if I bring along paper maps, and even downloaded digital versions to display on my notebook. If GPS fails and the satellites that house them, there’s always my Blackberry or my iPhone, I tell myself. I want synchronous rather than asynchronous navigation. I want to see the flashing dot move on the digital map as I move.

.Fat chance, if the GPS satellites are incapacitated after the massive onslaught of charged particles. Better to go back to a paper printout of a map, and to ask directions of people you meet, even if there is a big chance they will have not the slightest idea how to find places: “I always use my iPhone for directions.” That is usually followed by a curious look: “Why would you want to clutter your mind with true navigational knowledge, anyway? Better to use your working memory for what Johnny said about you on FaceBook, or to update your Linkedin profile so you sound like the kind of person that everyone would accept and perhaps even respect.

If we get the kind of solar flares they’re expecting, you might start questioning the time you’ve invested in FaceBook , LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking. Service is likely to be spotty at best and you may lose data or be unable to upload or save.

Solar activity occurs in 11-year cycles. We’re coming up on a very active time. 2012 is supposed to be the most intense ever – with radioactive solar winds and charged particles hitting the earth in a way that might even rival 1859, when the solar storms caused telegraph lines to burst into flame.

About a month ago, I had a shock when it appeared that my latest blog post had been removed. It dealt with college and university accreditation, and the difference between national and regional accreditation. It was a controversial topic in some camps, especially for public companies and investors who have dedicated resources to the for-profit colleges. Had I offended someone? Had they demanded that Blogger remove the post? It turns out the reason for the removal was not so sinister. The servers that Blogger uses (via Google) had failed, or there was some sort of routing problem. The problem was solved within a day. What a relief!

Were solar flares partially responsible?

I was informed a few weeks ago that the service that provides cloud storage for webinars archived over the last two years lost everything. No more archives. I was appalled. Aren’t they supposed to back up the servers? Isn’t redundancy supposed to be the cornerstone of cloud storage? It must have been a catastrophic, cascading failure, which really gives me pause. Our entire society is rushing as quickly as it can into cloud storage. Cloud storage is supposed to facilitate access (the underlying assumptions here are that there is ubiquitous access and that it’s more or less free and fast; needless to say, the assumptions are problematic at best).

While power and Internet connectivity are issues when it comes to solar flares, I often wonder if there are deeper impacts.

It seems to me that they could affect the earth’s mantle as well, and cause perturbations in the convection currents in the earth’s molten layers. The differential cooling and heating of the molten layers (the mantle and the core) are what cause the movements in the earth’s crust, and earth-building events such as orogenies (mountain-building) and basin-building pull-apart faulting.

If this is the case, are the massive solar flares in the past year triggering earthquakes?

Perhaps the Mayans were onto something with their calendar and predictions of the end of the world. According to scientists, 2012 is slated to be a banner year for solar flares. If so, it will be a rollercoaster ride for users of electrical power and the Internet.

It could have even more dramatic consequences if we do in fact see massive earthquakes, which trigger tsunamis.

Could solar flares affect the weather? What happens when solar winds hit the earth’s high-altitude winds and clouds (which have charged particles of their own).

I’m going to start monitoring the solar flare activity very carefully.

I may also pick up a copy of predictions for 2012 based on the Mayan calendar.