[meteorite-list] 3rd largest solar flare this morning

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:36 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4EEB1_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

In case any of you missed the news, the Earth is in store for a
little excitement starting in less than 48 hours. The third largest
ever recorded solar flare occurred some time around 11:00 UT this
morning (3 am PST), releasing an incredible CME (coronal mass
ejection) some time between 11:06 and 11:30 UT. Travel time from
the sun to earth depends on the CME velocity, but 48 hours is typical.
This would mean a geomagnetic storm would begin around 3am PST early
Thursday morning. However, with a blast this powerful, it may arrive
hours early, so people should be watching for low-latitude auroral
activity beginning late Wednesday night.

World power grids could easily be affected, as well as radio
communication networks. (This includes radio, television, satellite
communication, cellular phones, pagers, etc.) According to Dr. Paal
Brekke, the European Space Agency SOHO deputy project scientist, this
morning's flare was slightly more powerful than the one that occurred
on March 6, 1989, which knocked out power grids in much of eastern
Canada.

The following link has much more information:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0310/28flare/

If you want to monitor auroral activity, you can periodically check in
on the NOAA site:

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html

Activity as of 4:32pm PST this afternoon is already fairly high (level 8).
I'm confident it will hit 10+ (the peak of the scale) in the coming
days. --Rob
Received on Tue 28 Oct 2003 07:34:53 PM PST