MonarC
11-04-2003, 03:17 PM
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Three new flares spotted
in wake of last week’s
unprecedented blasts;
watch for auroras
An ultraviolet view of the sun, captured Monday by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, shows increased activity from sunspots along the edge of the disk.
===============
Nov. 3 — The sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning, bringing to nine the number of major eruptions in less than two weeks. Scientists have never witnessed a string of activity like this.
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COLORFUL AURORAS are expected to grace the skies at high latitudes and possibly into lower portions of the United States and Europe over the next two or three nights. Satellites and power grids could once again be put at risk.
Early Monday, Paal Brekke, the European Space Agency’s deputy project manager for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, was still digesting the significance of the three additional outbursts on top of two back-to-back monster flares last Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity we have seen in modern time,” Brekke told Space.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
The flares this week began with an X8 event at 12:25 p.m. ET Sunday. On this scale, all X-storms are severe, and the number indicates the degree of severity. An X3 flare erupted at 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
Reports of the third flare are preliminary. It left the sun at 4:55 a.m. ET Monday and is estimated to be an X4 or X5. The trio of outbursts comes within a week of the unprecedented, back-to-back severe flares rated X17 and X10.
The first four flares in this long, amazing series date back to Oct. 22 and were ranked less than X2.
All flares of this magnitude are capable of disrupting communications systems and power grids and harming satellites. Two Japanese satellite failures and a power outage in Sweden were blamed on the first six storms.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/dhtml/images/991109_solar_change.jpg
Space storms occur when the sun throws off an outburst of radiation and energetic particles that can interact with Earth's magnetic field. Such storms can disrupt communications, damage satellites and even pose health risks. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has set up three scales to measure the severity of "space weather."
The new flares were accompanied by coronal mass ejections of charged particles that take anywhere from 18 hours to two or three days to reach Earth. These coronal mass ejections represent the brunt of the storm unleashed by a flare.
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A storm’s precise strength, however, cannot be known until about 30 minutes before it passes over Earth’s magnetosphere. The storm’s effect depends on the orientation of its magnetic field. If that field is southward — opposite the direction of Earth’s north-pointing magnetic field — then the potential is greatest for accelerating the local particles that can then damage satellites and fuel auroras.
MORE AURORAS
Scientists said the eruptions will generate increased auroras, the colorful northern and southern lights excited by fast-moving particles, beginning midday ET Monday and into Tuesday and beyond. The lights shine because particles excite gas molecules in the atmosphere.
The chance of severe geomagnetic storming — the root of auroras — at middle latitudes is 30 percent Monday and 50 percent Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center. The precise extent of the aurora at any moment can’t be predicted, but it can be seen in real time with Space.com’s Aurora Cam.
The fist flare Sunday was generated by Sunspot 486, which was the site of last week’s major storms. The one late Sunday came from Sunspot 488, which is huge but has not been a major player until now. Monday’s flare also leapt from Sunspot 488.
Both sunspots are about to rotate off the right side of the Sun’s face, so their associated coronal mass ejections were not aimed squarely at Earth. However, these clouds of hot gas expand as they race into space at up to 5 million mph (8 million kilometers per hour), so at least glancing blows are expected.
Sunspots are dark, cooler regions of the solar surface. They are areas of pent-up magnetic activity, caps on upwelling matter and energy that can blow at any moment.
No scientist can recall nine X-class flares ever occurring in a 12-day period. More major flares are possible this week, forecasters said.
Three new flares spotted
in wake of last week’s
unprecedented blasts;
watch for auroras
An ultraviolet view of the sun, captured Monday by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, shows increased activity from sunspots along the edge of the disk.
===============
Nov. 3 — The sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning, bringing to nine the number of major eruptions in less than two weeks. Scientists have never witnessed a string of activity like this.
---------------------------
COLORFUL AURORAS are expected to grace the skies at high latitudes and possibly into lower portions of the United States and Europe over the next two or three nights. Satellites and power grids could once again be put at risk.
Early Monday, Paal Brekke, the European Space Agency’s deputy project manager for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, was still digesting the significance of the three additional outbursts on top of two back-to-back monster flares last Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity we have seen in modern time,” Brekke told Space.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
The flares this week began with an X8 event at 12:25 p.m. ET Sunday. On this scale, all X-storms are severe, and the number indicates the degree of severity. An X3 flare erupted at 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
Reports of the third flare are preliminary. It left the sun at 4:55 a.m. ET Monday and is estimated to be an X4 or X5. The trio of outbursts comes within a week of the unprecedented, back-to-back severe flares rated X17 and X10.
The first four flares in this long, amazing series date back to Oct. 22 and were ranked less than X2.
All flares of this magnitude are capable of disrupting communications systems and power grids and harming satellites. Two Japanese satellite failures and a power outage in Sweden were blamed on the first six storms.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/dhtml/images/991109_solar_change.jpg
Space storms occur when the sun throws off an outburst of radiation and energetic particles that can interact with Earth's magnetic field. Such storms can disrupt communications, damage satellites and even pose health risks. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has set up three scales to measure the severity of "space weather."
The new flares were accompanied by coronal mass ejections of charged particles that take anywhere from 18 hours to two or three days to reach Earth. These coronal mass ejections represent the brunt of the storm unleashed by a flare.
Advertisement
A storm’s precise strength, however, cannot be known until about 30 minutes before it passes over Earth’s magnetosphere. The storm’s effect depends on the orientation of its magnetic field. If that field is southward — opposite the direction of Earth’s north-pointing magnetic field — then the potential is greatest for accelerating the local particles that can then damage satellites and fuel auroras.
MORE AURORAS
Scientists said the eruptions will generate increased auroras, the colorful northern and southern lights excited by fast-moving particles, beginning midday ET Monday and into Tuesday and beyond. The lights shine because particles excite gas molecules in the atmosphere.
The chance of severe geomagnetic storming — the root of auroras — at middle latitudes is 30 percent Monday and 50 percent Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center. The precise extent of the aurora at any moment can’t be predicted, but it can be seen in real time with Space.com’s Aurora Cam.
The fist flare Sunday was generated by Sunspot 486, which was the site of last week’s major storms. The one late Sunday came from Sunspot 488, which is huge but has not been a major player until now. Monday’s flare also leapt from Sunspot 488.
Both sunspots are about to rotate off the right side of the Sun’s face, so their associated coronal mass ejections were not aimed squarely at Earth. However, these clouds of hot gas expand as they race into space at up to 5 million mph (8 million kilometers per hour), so at least glancing blows are expected.
Sunspots are dark, cooler regions of the solar surface. They are areas of pent-up magnetic activity, caps on upwelling matter and energy that can blow at any moment.
No scientist can recall nine X-class flares ever occurring in a 12-day period. More major flares are possible this week, forecasters said.