Word: flare
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...great flare, and its coterie of sunspots, was an unmistakable signal. It heralded the imminent arrival of the solar maximum: the period every eleven years or so when the sun reaches its peak levels of activity and pointedly reminds earth dwellers of its awesome power. At maximum...
...major goal of the project was to catch a flare in the act, mapping all the solar high jinks associated with it from beginning to end. The sun's timing could not have been better. During the first week of observations, it set off several large flares and ejected billions of tons of matter in a prominence that extended more than 200,000 miles into space...
Fortunately for earth dwellers, the March flare occurred on the easternmost edge of the sun and thus aimed its full force away from the earth. But on March 10, when the sun's stately rotation brought the turbulent group of sunspots to a position more directly facing the earth, a second, only slightly less powerful flare erupted in the region. Eight minutes later, traveling at the speed of light, a blast of X ray and ultraviolet radiation seared the earth's upper atmosphere. Within an hour, high-energy protons began to arrive, followed in three days by a massive bombardment...
Among the first to feel the effects of the flare's fury was the orbiting Solar Max. As the radiation saturated Solar Max's instruments, a NASA spokesman reported, "the satellite was stunned for a minute and then recovered." Heated by the incoming blast of radiation, the upper fringe of the atmosphere expanded farther into space. Low-orbiting satellites, encountering that fringe and running into increasing drag, slowed and dropped into still lower orbits. A secret Defense Department satellite began a premature and fatal tumble, and the tracking system that keeps exact tabs on some 19,000 objects in earth...
...earth, the flare's effects were equally disruptive. Shortwave transmissions were interrupted, some for as long as 24 hours, and satellite communication and a Coast Guard loran navigation system were temporarily overwhelmed. Powerful transient magnetic fields, generated in the upper atmosphere by the flare, induced electrical currents in transmission lines and wiring, and mystified homeowners reported automatic garage doors opening and closing on their own. A surge of flare-induced current was blamed by Hydro- Quebec officials for shutting down the power company's system and blacking out parts of Montreal and the province of Quebec for as long...