Storms from the Sun The Emerging Science of Space Weather (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Prologue: Here Comes the Sun
Prologue: Here Comes the Sun
Pages 1-10
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The outburst came just as the Sun was allegedly quieting clown; the peak of solar activity or solar maximum had officially arrived back in July 2000. The solar outburst in the spring of 2001 also coinciclec!
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The sunspot of March 2001 was so large that it was visible with the naked eye. Note that sunspots should only be observed through special filters; otherwise, you risk blindness, as many an ancient astronomer learned the hard way.
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The darkest structures are known as sunspot umbrae, where the magnetic fields point out vertically from the Sun; the lighter fibrous channels are called penumbrae, where the magnetic fields are horizontal to the surface. The surrounding bubble-like structures are known as photospheric granules, each of which is about 620-1,240 miles (1,000-2,000 km)
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Some electric power companies worked to reroute power supplies so that their equipment would not be overwhelmed by surges of electric power from space, and several transformers tripped in New York and Nova Scotia. Commercial airlines had sporadic problems with their radio signals during flights over the 4: Pacific, and more than 25 flights between North America and Asia were diverted so as not to fly through the polar regions, where radio communication is more susceptible to blackouts and passengers are more exposed to solar radiation.
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of solar activity in the entire solar cycle. All through the six weeks of solar storms, physicists at NASA's Johnson Space Center kept a watchful eye on the human occupants of the space station ant!
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Germany's DOSMAP dosimetric mapping experiment was used to delineate the types and intensities of radiation that seep into the space station, while lapan's Bonner Ball neutron detector measured the number of uncharged atomic particles reaching the inside of the station. Energetic neutrons can penetrate human tissues and can affect the development of bone marrow, leading to blood diseases and cancers.
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over the Earth at intervals, confusing mariners by causing compass neecIles to waver, but otherwise spencling their force on a planet too electromagnetically innocent to suffer from them." Solar activity ant! the resulting changes in the environment of Earth were scientific curiosities, engaging mysteries for the men ant!
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Our planet is a giant magnet, ant! that invisible magnetic force (the force that makes a compass needle point north)
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in time the notion of space weather will become commonplace, perhaps a feature of the nightly weather reports. We are living with a star, ant!
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