Sun Spews Spectacular Solar Storm

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2003/s2116.htm

SUN SPEWS SPECTACULAR SOLAR STORM
NOAA News Release
November 4, 2003

The NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo.,
reports that an intense explosion occurred on the sun Tuesday at 2:29 p.m. EST.
The violent eruption saturated X-ray detectors on NOAA's GOES satellite,
which monitors the sun and produces a new image every minute. NOAA space
weather forecasters are still analyzing the event to see if this solar explosion
will trigger another bout of radiation and geomagnetic storms. (Click NOAA
satellite image for larger view of sun taken on Nov. 4, 2003, at 3:14 p.m.
EST. Click here to view latest solar images: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/sxi/latest.html .
Please credit "NOAA.")

The explosion occurred in NOAA Region 486, an area that was about to rotate
out of view of the Earth. This storm may only deal a glancing blow at the Earth
given the position of the solar eruption. This region of the sun will be squarely
aimed at Earth once again during Thanksgiving week.

NOAA scientists are amazed at the amount of solar activity during the last
two weeks. During this cycle of the sun, almost four years past solar
maximum, explosions of this magnitude are a rarity.

NOAA forecaster Bill Murtagh said that a radio blackout is in progress.
"This is an R-5 extreme event. They don't get much bigger than this."
An R-5 event is at the top of the NOAA space weather scales, which run 1 to 5.

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