New Service from NOAA - Real-Time Solar Imaging

InfoSec writes "I was checking out the National Weather Service in the US earlier and I noticed a new feature added to their site.... Near real-time solar imaging!!! The images are VERY kewl. Does this mean that we'll soon be predicting solar events?"

More Imagery at NASA SOHO Site

[GSearle]

If you want to see a lot more realtime solar imagery, go to the SOHO [nasa.gov] web site. This is a satellite installed at the Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun. It's bristling with sensors, all dedicated to watching the Sun.

hmm...

[C21]

that depends on who you mean by "we". Amateur astronomers already predict solar events, such as when we're entering a coronal hole, when high radiation is going to hit. Mostly they predict these kind of things so they can catch auroras, but some of it is just purely scientific, as well. There's sun watch groups you can join.

more

[barakn]

The SXI data has been available for weeks. It replaces x-ray images which were on the Internet for years from the Yohkoh satellite until it saw one too many eclipses [isas.ac.jp] and spun out of control [isas.ac.jp] in Dec. 2001. Other near-real-time (or at least daily) images of the sun can be found in numerous [nasa.gov] places [maj.com]: SOHO and SXI are not the only sources. And there already are predictions [noaa.gov] of solar events.

Have you heard of NOAA?

[Orne]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA [noaa.gov]) already tracks "space weather". Check out this Primer [noaa.gov] for a good introdcution about what we already know.

Why is this important? Whenever the Earth's magnetosphere is hit by a solar storm, the change in magnetic field induces a DC ground current in the metal in the earth. For most applications, this has no effect. For the bulk power grid [pjm.com], this is significant -- this DC current seeps into the grid through ground taps, and can damage AC systems. Because the (very) high voltage equipment depends on (very) low currents, these fluctuations can be enough to damage transformers and cause problems on a state-wide scale.