Satgen454  Solar False Alarms ?   by GM4IHJ   (BID SGEN454)  6 Dec 97

Several times in the past few months, the media have announced  "There
has been a big explosion on the Sun".  A "media lecture" then followed
highlighting all the awful catastrophies which might occur , including
- satellite destruction, massive auroras, major electric power utility
failures, etc .etc.  Nature, being perverse, did none of these things.
But no explanation or follow up reports were made , and the public was
left to guess, that it had been someones attempt to brighten up, an
otherwise dull day in the media news rooms. Can the media be educated
? Probably not. But as many Radio Amateurs are already aware, the next
report of this kind ( if the media bother making it ), could produce a
really large magnetic storm around the earth. For in each of the above
cases, only one thing prevented a storm developing. The magnetic
polarity of the material thrown out by the Sun, and sent on its way to
us as an enhanced component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF)
, had the same polarity as that of the earth.

Like magnetic poles repel, and so the bulk of these storms was
directed away from the earth. Had the IMF had the opposite polarity to
that of the earth, the results would have been very different. Unlike
poles attract. So a south going IMF couples to a north going earth
field, puncturing the earths field and allowing the storm material
into the outer layers of the field. From where the energetic material
travels up towards each of the earths poles guided along between the
field lines until it descends over the unprotected polar regions.

The currents generated in the upper atmosphere can be enormous , and
they can interact with the hundreds of miles of electric power cables
which keep our cities and industries alive.  Because the earths
magnetic poles are not located at the geographic rotation poles , some
regions suffer more than others. Europeans despite their living in
comfort at high geographic latitude, courtesy of the warmth provided
by the Gulf Stream,are well away from the magnetic pole.So they rarely
suffer. By contrast, Canada, Alaska and northern USA, are very close
to the magnetic pole. So they can be badly affected by these storms.

Interestingly enough , the mag pole was further east when the Pilgrim
Fathers came ashore from Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. But since
then it has followed Horatio Alger's doctrine and "Gone West". Worse
still, to add insult to injury. Recent magnretic storms have taken out
several geostationary satellites serving Canada and USA, as the
particles on the incoming storm , collected on the satellite and built
up tremendous electric charges on their surfaces, which on flashing
over ,destroyed the satellites electronics . So why you may ask , can
we not measure the IMF polarity as it leaves the Sun and sort out the
likely dangerous storms from the innocent ones. Presently the only
useful stable orbit in which to park a Sun watcher satellite is at
Lagrange gravity balance point No1 , which is only one million miles
from earth . A separation which provides less than 1 hours warning .
The ill fated Cluster satellites which were lost on Ariane 501, would
have given us more information , but not much more warning time. So
for the moment Power stations pray for like polarity, while radio
Amateurs and Aurora watchers hope for unlike polarity.