Contact: Dane Konop FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-2483 10/31/94
Geomagnetic storm warnings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., will be improved by new solar wind gust measurements from the NASA solar WIND spacecraft to be launched Nov. 1 at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The WIND satellite, which will make elliptical orbits between the Earth and sun, is one of a series of missions under NASA's International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program.
Ronald Zwickl, chief of the NOAA center's Research and Development Division, said, "Because the satellite will intercept solar wind streaming toward Earth, NOAA space weather forecasters will have about one hour advance notice to prepare warnings of geomagnetic storms -- sharp fluctuations in the Earth's geomagnetic field that can have disastrous results."
NOAA's Space Environment Center issues warnings to electric power utilities, geosynchronous satellite operators, communications companies and others affected by geomagnetic storms. Working with the U.S. Air Force space weather facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., the center will receive measurements of solar wind speed and density and magnetic field intensity and direction in real time a few hours each day from the WIND spacecraft.
NOAA space weather forecasters will be looking for evidence of solar wind gusts, which feed into the Earth's own magnetic field, causing the northern and southern lights in the polar regions and sharp fluctuations in the geomagnetic field in the Earth's upper atmosphere. These fluctuations can interfere with geosynchronous satellites, disrupt radio communications, and induce slowly varying currents in power lines, pipelines and train tracks. A particularly severe geomagnetic storm in March 1989 caused millions of dollars in damage to power transmission equipment from eastern Canada to southern California and a nine- hour blackout for six million people in Quebec, Canada.
The Space Environment Center, one of seven National Centers for Environmental Prediction, conducts research in solar- terrestrial physics, develops techniques for forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances, and provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events.