Word: peake
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Strolling outside Arizona's Kitt Peak National Observatory during a work break, staff observer Paul Avellar at first thought the angry red glow in the night sky was caused by forest fires. Then, seeing a greenish fringe and vertical streamers stretching like ribbons above the horizon, he realized what was happening. He raced to a telephone and called his wife and friends, awakening them and insisting they share the view. "A chance like this doesn't come along very often," says Avellar. "To see the northern lights is very humbling and awe-inspiring. You realize the sun is just going...
...great flare, and its coterie of sunspots, was an unmistakable signal. It heralded the imminent arrival of the solar maximum: the period every eleven years or so when the sun reaches its peak levels of activity and pointedly reminds earth dwellers of its awesome power. At maximum...
Because the previous maximum occurred in late 1979, astronomers had targeted 1991 as the year when solar frenzy would again peak. But the sun is notably capricious. While the intervals between maximums average eleven years, some have been as short as seven, others as long as 17. Ever since the sun began revving up three years ago toward the next maximum, its activity has mounted with unprecedented speed...
...early phase. It's got quite a way to go." Solar buffs are speculating it might approach the violence reached by the 1957-58 maximum, which touched off five disruptive geomagnetic superstorms and vivid auroral displays. Says astronomer Donald Neidig at the National Solar Observatory outpost on Sacramento Peak, near Sunspot, N. Mex.: "We can't rule out a record breaker...
...sides also signed eleven other agreements, all involving trade. Commerce between the two countries, which fell 36% from its peak in 1984 to a total of $8 billion last year, has lately begun to pick up again. Gorbachev was especially taken with demonstrations of the high-tech wizardry that abounds in West German industry. In one factory a robot poured glasses of a local wine for a toast with Baden-Wurttemberg Minister President Lother Spath. Gorbachev repeatedly encouraged West German industrialists to participate in joint ventures in the Soviet Union. Said he: "Those who look ahead and take calculated risks...