Sunspots go through a cycle roughly every 11 years where they alternate between no sunspots and intense sunspots. This affects temperatures on earth and can interfere with communications. There have been some really bad sunspot eruptions, like around 1860, where the electromagnetic interference damaged telegraph wires. If this were to happen again then we could see disruptions to the electrical grid and communications.
We did not know why this happens every 11 years but now we think that we do. The planets, Earth, Jupiter, and Venus align roughly every 11 years, and the combined effect creates gravitational tidal forces that interfere with the magnetic/electrical currents on the surface of the sun. The video gives more details.
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