SOLAR MAX

Project gives us a good look at the sun -- and a warning
Friday, December 22, 2000
By JEREMIAH STODDARD
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

The old warning not to look directly at the sun is being ignored by scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency.

Dr. Paal Brekke, who works for ESA and NASA, spoke at the Pacific Science Center yesterday about the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) project and offered a warning about an upcoming solar storm that could cause trouble here on Earth.

Launched on Dec. 2, 1995, SOHO has provided invaluable information about the sun -- from the orb's interior composition to its violent, dynamic atmosphere to the sun's effect on our climate.

Using computer data generated by the 9.5-meter-wide satellite positioned directly between the Earth and the sun, Brekke, a Norwegian, and his team of international solar physicists are kept busy analyzing data.

Brekke said SOHO's mission is becoming increasingly complex.

"We need overlapping instrumentation to better collect the data," Brekke said in an interview. "But as we get better pictures of the sun, our models become more complex," he said. "Still, it's a nice problem to have."

The SOHO project is fully funded through 2003. It costs $24 million a year to operate and has enough fuel to continue until 2045.

Balanced between the gravitational pull of Earth and the sun, SOHO beams real-time images to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Among the most striking views is of the sun's corona. SOHO blocks the light coming directly from the sun with an occulter disk, creating an artificial eclipse within the instrument itself.

This allows the satellite, with its 45 million kilometer range of view, to detect the sun's flares, called coronal streamers. Because of the vast area of space the satellite covers, it has detected over 200 comets since 1995.

Another of SOHO's instruments, the EIT, Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, portrays the solar atmosphere at several wavelengths to show solar material at different temperatures. The 3-D view from the EIT camera is extraordinary, and inspires awe and fear simultaneously.

Brekke's visit is timed, coincidently, with an upcoming violent solar storm.

Every 11 years, the sun reverses its polarity. This transition, called solarmax, will be viewed for the first time by scientists using the SOHO satellite. Brekke said the intensity of the solarmax events has been growing each 11 year-cycle for about 400 years.

The last solarmax occurred in 1989. It knocked out all of Eastern Canada's communications. Six million people in Quebec lost power for nine hours. In 1978, spy satellites were destroyed.

The current solarmax, which will reach its peak intensity in the next few months, will last into 2001.

During a solarmax, the Earth's protective magnetosphere is pounded with highly energetic solar particles, causing the Earth's magnetic field to wildly change in direction and intensity.

"It effects everything. Satellites, pipelines, power grids, navigation systems, cell phones, radio stations, pagers, Internet companies, oil and gas exploration," Brekke said.

"Even pigeons, because they rely on magnetic fields for their navigation."

The solarmax isn't all doom and gloom, however. Brekke informed those in attendance that because of the solarmax, a low level C7-class solar flare burst from the sun Monday and will treat the Seattle area to an aurora either last night or tonight.

An aurora is a dynamic visual manifestation of solar-induced geomagnetic storms. The solar wind energizes electrons and ions in the magnetosphere. When the particles strike the Earth's atmosphere, they glow in different colors.

With nearly 2,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, the solarmax event, said Brekke, may very well dramatically effect our lives.

The sun's power will soon be on full display in Seattle. SolarMax, an IMAX film, will be shown at the Pacific Science Center starting in January. 

source: seattlepi.nwsource.com