Open AccessScientists unveil new theory and findings about solar eruptions
Author(s) -
Showstack Randy
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/97eo00347
Subject(s) - coronal mass ejection , solar cycle 24 , solar cycle 22 , physics , space weather , astronomy , solar flare , spacecraft , sunlight , meteorology , solar cycle 23 , coronagraph , solar atmosphere , solar cycle , solar maximum , solar wind , plasma , magnetic field , planet , exoplanet , quantum mechanics
With a coronagraph on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) blocking out direct sunlight, an image of the Sun taken at 5:28 a.m. EST last November 6 picked up some wisps of gas streaming away into space. Yet, only a few hours later the picture from SOHO, which is jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, had dramatically changed. At 8:46 a.m. EST, a subsequent image revealed a bursting coronal mass ejection (CME) and a resulting blizzard of accelerated protons that looks like static snow on a television. This solar eruption, whereby “a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere is thrown out into space,” as Spiro Antiochos of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory puts it, was the first in a new cycle leading to the solar max. During the maximum of the new solar cycle, expected around 2000 and 2001, more frequent solar storms should occur. Some could carry 10 billion tons of matter and travel as fast as 1000 m/s. The eruptions' magnetic fields and speed could affect spacecraft, navigation, and communications systems, as well as ground‐based electrical grids.