Solar Wave -
Astronomy News Summary:
Sun blast solar wave at Earth causing black outs in Quebec, destroying satelites in it's path.
Article:
[b]TAMPA - A turbulent sun Wednesday vented its wrath at Earth with a giant wave of solar energy that continues to roar through the solar system.
Although the peak of the event posed no danger, the upheaval of electrified gas interfered with satellite communications and created spectacular auroras over the Earth's poles. The wave will last through Thursday and then dissipate.
``It's one of the most extensive blow-ups on the sun since the 17th century,'' says Tampa astronomer Joseph Carr. ``It's almost like a shower of water.''
The solar flare - called a coronal mass ejection - was classified as an X18-category explosion, capable of global radio blackouts and radiation storms. During such events, engineers temporarily shut down satellites or turn them around to deflect the incoming energy.
``There's a lot of interference with communications because the storm produces stray magnetic fields,'' Carr says. ``Things can get a little out of shape because a satellite might misinterpret one of our instructions and wander off course.''
The storm of charged particles is ``huge and still passing us,'' says Paal Brekke, deputy project scientist with the European Space Agency and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
Brekke says the storm is a big piece of the sun that peels off and flies through space. Such storms are part of the sun's dynamic 11-year cycle, during which it reverses its magnetic poles.
However, things this week could have been worse had the storm's magnetic field been pointing south instead of north - the same direction as the Earth's magnetic field.
``The important thing is we were lucky that the magnetic field was facing north,'' Brekke says. ``If it was facing south, it could have been even more severe because the fields would interact more, causing power outages.''
A ``south-to-north'' solar storm struck Earth in 1989, shorting out satellite electronics, disrupting power grids and causing a major blackout in Quebec. Some intense storms have been known to create northern lights - the aurora borealis - that can sometimes be seen from the southern United States.
Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570.
TampaBay Tribune 
