10/28/03 solar flare = 10/29/03 electronic disruption

my mother just reported that when she lays in bed in the dark and puts her fingers to the sides of her eye balls and pushes slightly she also sees the aurora borealis ( and sometimes roadrunner cartoons)

:::pinches Dys::: too funny!

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solar_flares_031103.html

Three more flares. Sun unusually active.

Excerpts:

Sun on Fire, Unleashes 3 More Major Flares
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 10:45 am ET
03 November 2003

UPDATED AT 11:31 A.M. ET

The Sun cut loose with three severe flares in less than 24 hours through Monday morning, bringing to nine the number of major eruptions in less than two weeks.

Scientists have never witnessed a string of activity like this.

Colorful aurora are expected to grace the skies at high latitudes and possibly into lower portions of the United States and Europe over the next two or three nights. Satellites and power grids could once again be put at risk.

Early Monday, Paal Brekke, deputy project manager of the SOHO spacecraft, was still digesting the significance of the three additional outbursts on top of two back-to-back monster flares Oct. 28 and 29.

A major solar eruption early on Nov. 3, 2003, flung a cloud of expanding, hot gas into space. The myriad white spots are protons ahead of the storm slamming into the spacecraft's imager. Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO


A space storm can only achieve full potential if its magnetic field is oriented south, opposite to that of Earth's protective magnetosphere which always points north.


"I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity we have seen in modern time," Brekke told SPACE.com.

None of the latest eruptions was aimed directly at Earth, but glancing blows are

Sun produces monster solar flare

The Sun has unleashed its largest recorded solar flare, capping 10 days of unprecedented activity for the star.

The blast sent billions of tonnes of superhot gas into space - some of it directed towards our planet.

Scientists say the Sun's current spate of activity has produced the most dramatic events seen on the solar surface since regular monitoring began.

Space weather forecasters have been kept busy tracking the impact of geomagnetic storms on the Earth.


Huge energy


Powerful solar flares are given an "X" designation. There was an X8 and an X3 event on Sunday.
Powerful solar flares are given an "X" designation. There was an X8 and an X3 event on Sunday. And on Monday, there was an X3 flare followed by smaller ones.


Last week there were X7 and X10 events that took place back-to-back.
Tuesday's flare went off the scale; researchers say it was "well above X20". A precise description is difficult because some monitoring satellites were briefly blinded the scale of the event.

Even so, experts say the Tuesday event must have been the most powerful ever recorded, surpassing the X20 flares of 2 April 2001 and 16 August 1989.

The major flares have come from sunspot region 486, now officially the most active solar region in recorded solar observational history.

Because 486 is close to the Sun's western limb, the blast was not directed straight towards the Earth.

Buffeted Earth

Nevertheless, our planet's magnetic sheath may still be hit by clouds of charged particles in the next 24 or 48 hours and could give rise to geomagnetic storms.

Skywatchers have been told to be on alert for spectacular aurorae in darkened skies.

These dancing polar lights are generated when fast-moving particles (electrons and protons) ejected from the Sun get trapped in the magnetic field around the Earth, and collide with the gases in the upper atmosphere.

Some orbiting satellites could be in the firing line, too. The mass of electrons contained in these surges can damage onboard microchips. Operations may need to be temporarily suspended to protect sensitive equipment.

And high energy radiation hitting our atmosphere could also interrupt short-wave radio transmissions and cause errors in navigation systems.

Dr Paal Brekke, deputy project scientist for the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (Soho) Sun-monitoring satellite, told BBC News Online: "I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic solar activity periods we have seen in modern times."


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3242353.stm

Published: 2003/11/05 01:31:45 GMT

© BBC MMIII

Montana,

Be sure to take your camera with you!