The sun, caught during a solar flare by satellite cameras.ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASA satellite detects solar flare

Web posted April 10, 1997

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A wave of energy from a solar flare moved toward the Earth today, but scientists said it was only moderate in size and probably would not disrupt radios or phones, electric power or satellites.

A very large solar flare can disrupt radio and telephone communications, cause power surges and blackouts and damage satellites. The last such major event was in 1989. Federal scientists said the the recent solar flare is the fourth this year and there is no indication that it will cause problems.

Joe Hirman of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather office in Boulder, Colo., called it ``rather ordinary.'' Satellite operators were routinely notified, but officials said it would take a larger event to affect orbiting equipment.

``The effects will be almost none,'' said David Speich of the NOAA space weather forecast center.

Scientists were excited about the flare, which erupted Monday, because for the first time, it was captured by a NASA satellite, the new SOHO. The instruments gave the first view of a blob of matter lifting from the sun and a shock wave.

The new NASA satellite detected a wave moving across the gaseous surface of the sun ``like a tsunami tidal wave,'' NASA's Art Poland said. ``That's the first time we have seen the shock wave.''

Poland said the satellite also detected a mass of material ejected from the sun and moving outward at about 1.8 million miles an hour.

When material from large flares hit the planet's electromagnetic field, they cause it to ``wiggle,'' said Alan MacRobert, associate editor of Sky & Telescope magazine. That can affect telecommunications and radio waves.

One positive aspect to the flare: ``We might get a good display of Northern Lights out of this,'' he said.

``There's been an interest for a long time in being able to predict solar flares,'' MacRobert noted. ``In the last 11 years, we have become more dependent on electronic gadgetry and things in orbit.''

But Speich said that satellite designers have known about this problem for years and that most spacecraft are well shielded.

NASA's Poland said the exact energy released by the flare would not be known until late today when geomagnetic radiation from the storm will reach the Earth.

The space shuttle Columbia would not have had to return home because of the solar flare since the spaceship is shielded against radiation, said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring. He pointed out that there are three men aboard the Russian space station Mir, and they're not coming home because of the solar flare.

Speich said that in the more than a decade Mir has been aloft, there have been much more powerful flares and there have been no problems.

This solar flare holds special fascination for scientists because it occurred during a relatively quiet time on the sun, and for the first time there were satellite instruments that detected the movement of matter during the flare.

Solar flares put out a number of types of radiation that is measured. This helps to estimate the amount of energy produced and aids experts in forecasting the effect on Earth.

Hirman said the flare was ``at the lower end of the scale'' in X-rays and ``not very strong at all in radio frequencies.''

Also, he said, the explosion of material from the sun was pointed mostly away from the Earth, which means that only a small amount of the geomagnetic radiation will reach the planet.

Although the sun is now rather quiet, Hirman said that in about three years, there will be many flares every day on the sun. He said this occurs during Solar Maximum, the period of major activity in the sun's 11-year cycle of flares.

``During solar max we won't even be able to see a flare this size,'' said Hirman, referring to Monday's event. ``There will be so many larger flares that we couldn't detect this one. There will be much larger flares than this every day.''