From: baalke@zagami.jpl.nasa.gov   
      
   Donald Savage   
   Headquarters, Washington            October 23, 2003   
   (Phone: 202/358-1547)   
      
   DC Agle   
   Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.   
   (Phone: 818/393-9011)   
      
   RELEASE: 03-344   
      
   NASA SCIENTIST DIVES INTO PERFECT SPACE STORM   
      
        Newly uncovered scientific data of recorded history's most   
   massive space storm is helping a NASA scientist investigate its   
   intensity and the probability that what occurred on Earth and in   
   the heavens almost a century-and-a-half ago could happen again.   
      
   In scientific circles where solar flares, magnetic storms and   
   other unique solar events are discussed, the occurrences of   
   September 1-2, 1859, are the star stuff of legend. Even 144 years   
   ago, many of Earth's inhabitants realized something momentous had   
   just occurred. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United   
   States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous   
   fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more   
   closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were   
   documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar   
   effects at the South Pole.   
      
   "Remarkably, science has documented solar events a hundred times   
   more intense," said Dr. Bruce Tsurutani, a plasma physicist at   
   NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But none of   
   them interacted with the Earth in such a violent manner. What   
   happened in 1859 was a combination of several events that   
   occurred on the Sun at the same time. If they took place   
   separately they would be somewhat notable events. But together   
   they create the most potent disruption of Earth's ionosphere in   
   recorded history. What they generated was the perfect space   
   storm," he said.   
      
   To begin to understand the perfect space storm you must first   
   begin to understand the gargantuan numbers with which plasma   
   physicists like Tsurutani work every day. At over 1.4 million   
   kilometers (869,919 miles) wide, the Sun contains 99.86 percent   
   of the mass of the entire solar system: well over a million   
   Earths could fit inside its bulk. The total energy radiated by   
   the Sun averages 383 billion trillion kilowatts, the equivalent   
   of the energy generated by 100 billion tons of TNT exploding each   
   and every second.   
      
   But the energy released by the Sun is not always constant. Close   
   inspection of the Sun's surface reveals a turbulent tangle of   
   magnetic fields and boiling arc-shaped clouds of hot plasma   
   dappled by dark, roving sunspots.   
      
   Every once in a while -- exactly when scientists cannot predict -   
   - an event occurs on the surface of the Sun that releases a   
   tremendous amount of energy in the form of a solar flare or a   
   coronal mass ejection, an explosive burst of very hot,   
   electrified gases with a mass that can surpass that of Mount   
   Everest.   
      
   What transpired during the dog days of summer 1859, across the   
   150 million-kilometer (about 93 million-mile) chasm of   
   interplanetary space that separates the Sun and Earth, was this:   
   on August 28, solar observers noted the development of numerous   
   sunspots on the Sun's surface. Sunspots are localized regions of   
   extremely intense magnetic fields. These magnetic fields   
   intertwine, and the resulting magnetic energy can generate a   
   sudden, violent release of energy called a solar flare. From   
   August 28 to September 2 several solar flares were observed.   
   Then, on September 1, the Sun released a mammoth solar flare. For   
   almost an entire minute the amount of sunlight the Sun produced   
   at the region of the flare actually doubled.   
      
   "With the flare came this explosive release of a massive cloud of   
   magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection," said   
   Tsurutani. "These things actually fire out from the Sun radially,   
   so not all of them head toward the Earth. But those that do   
   usually take three to four days to reach Earth. This one took all   
   of 17 hours and 40 minutes," he noted.   
      
   Not only was this coronal mass ejection an extremely fast mover,   
   the magnetic fields contained within its charged particles were   
   extremely intense and in direct opposition with Earth's magnetic   
   fields. That meant the coronal mass ejection of September 1,   
   1859, overwhelmed Earth's own magnetic field, allowing charged   
   particles to penetrate into Earth's upper atmosphere. The endgame   
   to such a stellar event is one heck of a light show and more --   
   including potential disruptions of electrical grids and   
   communications systems.   
      
   Back in 1859 the invention of the telegraph was only 15 years old   
   and society's electrical framework was truly in its infancy. A   
   1994 solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications   
   satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and   
   nationwide radio service throughout Canada. Other storms have   
   affected systems ranging from cell phone service and TV signals   
   to GPS systems and electrical power grids. In March 1989, a solar   
   storm much less intense than the perfect space storm of 1859   
   caused the Hydro-Quebec (Canada) power grid to go down for over   
   nine hours, and the resulting damages and loss in revenue were   
   estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.   
      
   "The question I get asked most often is, 'Could a perfect space   
   storm happen again, and when?'" added Tsurutani. "I tell people   
   it could, and it could very well be even more intense than what   
   transpired in 1859. As for when, we simply do not know," he said.   
      
   To research this perfect space storm, Tsurutani and co-writers   
   Drs. Walter Gonzalez, of the Brazilian National Space Institute,   
   and Gurbax Lakhina and Sobhana Alex, of the India Institute of   
   Geomagnetism, used previously reported ground, solar and auroral   
   observations, and recently re-discovered ground-based magnetic-   
   field data from Colaba Observatory in India. The findings were   
   published in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical   
   Research.   
      
   For more information on the Internet, visit:   
   http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/   
   http://www.nasa.gov   
   -end-   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)