Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NOAA News Online (Story 2104)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 09:09:42 -0400

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2003/s2104.htm
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NOAA
Magazine || NOAA Home Page

Commerce
Dept.

SUN ERUPTS WITH INTENSE ACTIVITY

Oct.
22, 2003 — Forecasters at the NOAA
Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed two dynamic areas
of the sun, one of which has produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME,
Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. EDT that appears to be Earth-directed. The
forecasters are predicting a strong geomagnetic storm, G-3
on the NOAA Space Weather Scales, that should reach Earth on Friday,
October 24. (Click here to view larger image from the SOHO spacecraft
of the intense solar activity on the sun taken Oct. 21, 2003. Click
here to view high resolution version, which is a large file. Click
here to view latest images. Please credit “SOHO.”)

NOAA Region
484 developed rapidly over the past three days and is now one of the largest
sunspot clusters to emerge during Solar Cycle 23. It is about 10 times
larger than the Earth. This region, which is nearing the center of the
sun, already produced a major flare, R-3 on the NOAA Space Weather Scales,
producing a radio blackout on October 19 at 12:50 p.m EDT. The region
continues to grow, and additional substantial flare activity is likely.

Larry Combs,
a forecaster with the NOAA Space Environment Center’s Space Weather
Operations, said that this region has developed rapidly over the last
three to four days. “It’s somewhat unusual to have this much
activity when we’re approximately three-and-a-half years past solar
maximum,” he said. “In fact, just last week, solar activity
was very low with an almost spotless sun.” Solar cycles of high
and low activity repeat about every eleven years, and the sun has been
moving towards solar minimum for the past three years.

A second
intense active region is rotating on the southeast quadrant of the sun.
Although the sunspot group is not yet visible, two powerful eruptions
occurred on October 21 as seen from the LASCO instrument on the SOHO
spacecraft. These eruptions may herald the arrival of another volatile
active center with the potential to impact various Earth systems.

Further major
eruptions are possible from these active regions as they rotate across
the face of the sun over the next two weeks. Satellite and other spacecraft
operations, power systems, high frequency communications, and navigation
systems may experience disruptions over this two-week period.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through
the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and
providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine
resources. NOAA is part of the U.S.
Department of Commerce.

Relevant
Web Sites

NOAA Space Environment Center

NOAA
Space Weather Scales

Latest
SOHO images

Media
Contact:

Barbara
McGehan, NOAA Space Environment Center,
(303) 497-6288