- Another spectacular eruption on the surface of the Sun
sent charged particles hurling toward Earth on Wednesday, and scientists
said the cloud could significantly disrupt communications on Earth and
may even hamper firefighting efforts in California.
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- "It's headed straight for us like a freight train,"
said John Kohl, a solar astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "This is the real thing."
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- In Tokyo, Japan's space agency announced the Kodama communications
satellite malfunctioned after being affected by the flare. The agency said
it was temporarily shut down and would be reactivated after the solar storm
subsided.
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- The explosion of gas and charged particles into space
from the corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, is not harmful
to people. It can, however, knock out satellite communications, which some
emergency crews are relying on in battling California's wildfires.
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- Similar solar events in recent years have disrupted television
transmissions, GPS navigation, oil pipeline controls and even the flow
of electricity along power lines.
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- Space weather forecasters first warned of that possibility
last week, when another solar flare erupted, and then they saw a new sunspot
region developing in another region of the sun's face.
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- The cloud of charged particles from last week's eruption
struck Earth "with only a glancing blow," Mr. Kohl said. It disrupted
some airline communications.
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- But he said scientists observed the biggest such explosion
in 30 years shortly before 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. It produced a particle cloud
13 times larger than Earth and hurtled through the solar system at more
than 1.6 million kilometres an hour.
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- The resulting geomagnetic storm could be ranked among
the most powerful of its kind and last for 24 hours. It is expected to
disrupt communications satellites and high-frequency radios.
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- In southern California, wildfires already have knocked
out many microwave communication antennas on the ground, making satellite
communications important to emergency efforts. Researchers said safety
personnel may encounter communications interference.
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- U.S. researchers said they have already turned off instruments
and taken other precautions with science satellites.
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- A positive note: strong geomagnetic storms can produce
colourful auroras in the night sky visible as far south as Texas and Florida
beginning late Wednesday.
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- Sunspots and solar storms tend to occur in 11-year cycles;
the current cycle peaked in late 2000.
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- Scientists compared the latest flare to the "Bastille
Day storm" that occurred in July, 2000.
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- "The Bastille Day storm produced considerable disruption
to both ground and space high-tech systems," said Bill Murtagh, a
space weather forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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