After the quiet phase in 1996, SOHO sees the Sun brightening. When solar activity peaks at the end of the century, storms in space will bring risks to astronauts, satellites, computers, power links and communications. Solar activity affects the weather too, in ways today poorly understood, and outbursts cause auroras around the Earth's magnetic poles.
In this graph by VIRGO one can easily see the growth of total solar irradiance since the early days of the SOHO mission towards the sunspot maximum in 2000 - 2001.
