The USA Disaster Situation Report
Active Sun Sending Storms Towards Earth
A major solar flare occurred beginning on Thanksgiving evening, November
23 at 10:02 p.m. MST (24/0502 UT), with a second happening ten hours later
on November 24 at 8:13 a.m. MST (24/1513 UT), according to NOAA's Space
Environment Center in Boulder, Colo. Forecasters say that solar activity
is likely to continue at moderate to high levels for the next several days.
As a result of this activity, a geomagnetic storm is expected to reach
Earth on the evening of Saturday, November 25 or Sunday, November 26. "A
drastic increase in the solar wind, or a shock wave, impacts the Earth's
magnetic field, and typically, signifies the onset of the geomagnetic
storm," forecaster Bill Murtagh said. Forecasters expect perhaps as many
as four shock waves arriving in a 24-hour period this weekend. Geomagnetic
storms travel at a rate of 1-3 million miles per hour.
Strong geomagnetic storms can cause satellites to experience surface
charging and orientation problems and power systems can also be affected.
Such storms can also interfere with high frequency radio communications.
The initial solar flares already caused radio blackouts on the sunlit side
of the Earth for about an hour.
Using NOAA's Space Weather Scales, the geomagnetic storm is predicted to
be a strong storm (G 3), with the possibility that the storm may reach
higher levels as the event progresses. "The rapid-fire sequence of events
is unlike anything we've seen thus far, during this solar cycle," said
Murtagh. According to forecaster Larry Combs, the danger lies in the
duration of the storms. "We've had several flares and Coronal Mass
Ejections (CMEs) in the past 36 hours, and if that continues, the constant
bombardment of the Earth by the enhanced solar wind, could affect power
systems and satellites."
The flares that produced these storms were categorized by forecasters as
X-2 events, X being the highest category of flares possible. The flares
occurred in the north central area of the sun, which is expected to
continue to be visible for the next seven days. There is, therefore, a
distinct possibility of more activity occurring. "The region that produced
these flares continues to grow and increase in complexity," Murtagh said.
"In fact, it's almost doubled in size since yesterday."
The solar wind and particles produced as a result of these flares can
produce Auroral Borealis, or northern lights as far down as Illinois and
Oregon (typically 50 degrees geomagnetic latitude.)
NOAA's Space Environment Center is the nation's official source of space
weather alerts and warnings and continually monitors and forecasts Earth's
space environment.
For the latest information on solar storms and their progress go to:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov
The information presented here is not authoritative.
It contains preliminary and partial information reports. It is intended to serve as a general daily digest of disaster related reports. Any other use is not intended or authorized.
The Disaster Center is a partner with CASI - Central Atlantic Storm Investigators. CASI is a group of over a thousand amateur and professional meteorologists, storm spotters, and weather observers from around the world dedicated to the observation and documentation of weather events
http://www.weatherwatchers.org
The Current Report can be accessed at:
http://www.disastercenter.com/current.htm
If you wish to send a report please use our Disaster Center Situation Report Form form located at:
http://www.disastercenter.com/email/formSR.htm
To subcribe or unsubscribe to this list send an e-mail to:
sitrep-request{at}disastercenter.com
with the word
subscribe
or the word
unsubscribe
only, in the body of the message.
If you wish to contact the list owner send an e-mail to: host{at}disastercenter.com
Copyright The Disaster Center
Please feel free to to pass this e-zine along to your friends.
However we ask that keep it intact and forward it along in its entirety.
===================================================
CASI StormReports Email List
TOO MUCH StormReport EMAIL?
Set yourself to "Digest" to receive only ONE Email per day!
http://stormreports{at}casi-internal
CASI StormReports Administration Addresses:
Post message: stormreports{at}casi-internal
UNSUBSCRIBE: stormreports-unsubscribe{at}egroups.com OR
http://stormreports{at}casi-internal
ReSubscribe: stormreports-subscribe{at}egroups.com OR
http://stormreports{at}casi-internal
List owner: stormreports-owner{at}egroups.com
TO CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE THEN RESUBSCRIBE
Posting Suggestions URL:
http://www.weatherwatchers.org/members/casisr.html
===================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 31 2000 - 19:41:13 EST