[Boatanchors] weather for Wednesday and Thursday

[William L Howard]

Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 12:23 AM
weather for Wednesday and Thursday


> SUPERFLARE: Giant sunspot 486 unleashed another powerful solar flare
on Nov.
> 4th (1950 UT). Ionizing radiation hit Earth's atmosphere soon after
the
> explosion and caused a severe radio blackout, which radio listeners
noticed across
> North America.This latest flare from sunspot 486 could be historic.
The blast
> saturated X-ray detectors onboard GOES satellites for 11 minutes. The
last time
> a flare did this, on April 2nd, 2001, it was classified as an X20--the
> biggest ever recorded at the time. The Nov. 4th, 2003, solar flare
appears to have
> been even stronger. Sunspot 486 is near the sun's western limb, which
means the
> blast was not directed very much toward Earth. Even so, sky watchers
should
> be alert for auroras on Nov. 5th or 6th when a coronal mass ejection
(CME) is
> expected to deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field.
> <A
HREF="http://www.spaceweather.com/">http://www.spaceweather.com/</A>
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