Strong Geomagnetic Storm Expected to Hit, Friday

Yahoo News ^ | 10/23/03

[m1-lightning]

Science - AP

Strong Geomagnetic Storm Expected to Hit Thu Oct 23, 4:24 AM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

BOULDER, Colo. - A strong geomagnetic storm was expected to hit Earth on Friday with the potential to affect electrical grids and satellite communications.

One of the largest sunspot clusters in years developed over the past three days and produced a coronal mass ejection, similar to a solar flare, at 3 a.m. EDT Wednesday, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The disturbance was expected to produce a geomagnetic storm rated G3. A G5 storm is the strongest.

The storm could make the aurora visible as far south as Oregon and Illinois.

A coronal mass ejection is an explosion of gas and charged particles into space from the corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.

A second sunspot cluster not yet visible from Earth could produce more geomagnetic storms in the next two weeks, NOAA said.

[_Jim]

This happens every 11 years; or so I understand.

You're referring to the 11-year Sunspot Cycle - slightly different animal than we have here.

Technically, we're on the downward slope of that cycle now too.

[Newbomb Turk]

Strong Geomagnetic Storm Expected to Hit, Friday

Minority leader Tom Daschle blames President George W Bush.

[_Jim]

explain ... satellite communications problems to my superiors as being due to sun spots and solar flares.

Rather then the real causes: couldn't find the bird, bird was off, equipment setup error, wrong frequency, etc?

[Bayou City]

Hmmmm...does the shiny side face in or out?

...Shiny side out...everything bounces right off...

[John H K]

Unfortunately This report turned out to be wrong.
Damn shame it made the newswires; there never was any retraction or update in the mainstream media. The CME wasn't directed at earth at all. There's no Geomagnetic storm coming at all. However, it's possible over the next week there actually COULD be strong CMEs directed at earth.

[_Jim]

Up and coming:

http://www.ips.gov.au/Main.php?CatID=4&SecID=2&SecName=Alerts%20and%20Warnings&SubSecID=1&SubSecName=Geomagnetic%20Warning

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Last updated 24 Oct 2003 03:00 UT


Geomagnetic Warning

SUBJ: IPS GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE WARNING 03/48
ISSUED AT 22/2326Z OCTOBER 2003
BY THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE FORECAST CENTRE.

WARNING 48 UPDATE DUE TO ANOTHER MASS EJECTION
NEARLY FULL HALO CORONAL MASS EJECTION OBSERVED 22OCT 0754UT.

FULL HALO CORONAL MASS EJECTION OBSERVED 23 OCT 0845UT.
INCREASED GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY EXPECTED
DUE TO CORONAL MASS EJECTION IMPACTS
FROM 24-26 OCTOBER 2003
_____________________________________________________________
GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST
24 Oct: Active to Minor storm, chance major storm periods.
25 Oct: active to minor storm early in UT day.
26 Oct: Minor to major storm conditions.

[AdA$tra]

Fox news was still reporting it as of 2100 CDT.

[laishly]

"Minority leader Tom Daschle blames President George W Bush."

I agree, it MUST be his fault, and I'm saddened!

[Not_Who_U_Think]

Now that's one big CME!

We really don't know much about the potential danger of these things since we only have detailed sunspot records back about 500 years(IIRC). Before then, any effects caused by these types of events would go unattributed to the sun.

One thing's for sure - that's a mighty big furnace burning out there...

[John H K]

Fox news was still reporting it as of 2100 CDT.

There never was any retraction in the major media, unfortunately. That original embarassing AP article is living forever.

And I assure you there isn't a soul at Fox that knows a CME from their own farts. Nobody in the media knows a thing about science other than medicine.

[geopyg]

"One thing's for sure - that's a mighty big furnace burning out there..."

But remember - it has nothing to do with global warning - that's caused by my old pickup truck and gas lawn mower.

[squidly]

Rather then the real causes: couldn't find the bird, bird was off, equipment setup error, wrong frequency, etc?

LOL, no, I was approaching it from the ET side, not the RM side. There were times when the gear was working but we still had no comms due to net controller problems. Another thing was that sometimes some other ships we were out with would do unannounced EMCON drills. I got kept up all night one time because of that, and first thing in the morning the carrier (U.S.S. George Washington) came right back on the air. Pissed me off something big.

[JayNorth]

Minority leader Tom Daschle blames President George W Bush.

What did Bush know, and when did he know it?"</H?

[m1-lightning]

Gotta loves those COMSAT phones with the 3 second delay too.

[Wacka]

Bushes fault. Women and minorities hurt most.

[AdA$tra]

Now I know for sure it is going to happen. My hair is standing up and I feel nauseous.