[HCDX] Sun 'sneeze' will blind satellites

["Mike Terry" <michael.terry1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>From The Daily Telegraph (UK):

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

 Solar and Heliospheric Observatory [Soho]


 European Space Agency


 Hot topics - NASA


 International Astronomical Union


 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]



  A SNEEZE of charged gas from the Sun is expected to arrive in the vicinity
of Earth today, where it may disrupt radio communications, blind satellites
and cause surges in power grids.

Solar flares: A recent picture of the Sun showing the activity
A "coronal mass ejection", a bubble consisting of billions of tons of
searingly hot gas, erupted from the lower solar atmosphere on Wednesday,
according to observations by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho),
a Sun space probe operated by the European Space Agency and Nasa.

The material was predicted to take about three days to reach Earth, followed
by smaller amounts from a second, slower moving bubble of charged gas
discharged from the Sun on Thursday.

The International Astronomical Union meeting in Manchester yesterday was
told by Dr Paal Brekke of ESA about the Sun's capacity to damage high
technology equipment and the efforts of space scientists to give warning of
bad weather.

Dr Brekke described a major outburst seen by Soho on July 14, when a
powerful solar flare triggered an intense radiation storm that destroyed a
Japanese spacecraft, blinded and disoriented several satellites, degraded
the navigation of vessels and caused widespread "trips" in the United States
grid.

Although the risk of disruption will not be as great today, a warning has
been issued by America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
space environment centre in Boulder, Colorado.

The Sun is at the peak of its cycle of activity, the solar maximum, placing
Earth at greater risk of bad space weather than at any time in the past 11
years.





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