CLOSEST STAR: Angry Radiation Erupting With The Millennium The sun will greet the new millennium by turning angry, erupting into the most active part of its 11-year cycle with outbursts of energy that can threaten satellites, electrical power and spacewalking astronauts. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday the approaching solar storm could be more destructive than previous cycles because the Earth has more power grids and satellites that might be affected. ``There are bigger power grids, drawing more power now so the power companies are more vulnerable,'' said D. James Baker, the NOAA administrator. There are also 600 satellites, more than ever in history, that also might be affected, said Baker. This year, though, the power companies and satellite operators will be better prepared than ever, he said. Two satellites, operated by NOAA, NASA and the Air Force, are positioned in orbit to warn about hazardous energy bursts from the sun. One satellite, orbiting a million miles from Earth, will detect a rise in charged solar particles and give an hour's warning. Baker said that will be enough time for power companies to protect their electrical grids. Satellite operators can protect orbiting equipment by turning off circuits to prevent shorts, by closing solar panels, or by turning away from the wave of energy. He said operators are also prepared for ``ghost signals,'' spurious electronic surges that may prompt the satellite to take an unexpected action. The hour's warning also would allow spacewalking astronauts to seek the safety of the shuttle or the space station. Baker said that NOAA also has created a new scale to precisely describe the intensity of solar storms. He said the new values ``are the Richter scales of space weather.'' The scales will predict the intensity of three types of energy eruptions from the sun: geomagnetic, radiation and radio storms. For geomagnetic storms, caused by ejections of charged masses from the corona of the sun, there is a scale of G1 to G5. The strongest, G5, warns of electromagnetic energy powerful enough to knock out power grids, disable satellites and cause auroras, the so-called northern lights, to be visible as far south as the equator. For radiation storms, caused by bursts of protons and neutrons, the scale is from S5, the strongest, to S1. An S5 storm would be powerful enough to kill spacewalking astronauts, disrupt communications, cause memory losses in satellites and even disrupt navigation signals. For radio storms, caused by bursts of radio frequency energy from the sun, the scale is from R5, the strongest, to R1. An R5 storm could cause a blackout of high frequency radio signals on the sunlit side of the Earth and disrupt low frequency navigation signals for hours. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle, building up energy outbursts until it reaches what is called solar max. Baker said the solar activity is building now and should peak next year and then tail off. During the last solar max, in 1989, a major geomagnetic storm sent a power surge through electrical lines, burning out switches and transformers and causing an extended blackout in Quebec. The same storm also knocked out some Defense Department satellites, said Baker. A solar storm last year was blamed for the loss of a communications satellite that put 40 million pagers and phones out of business, Baker said. He said the approaching solar max should be only ``average,'' about like the one in 1989. But this time, he said, most power companies and satellite operators are ready. ``They are better prepared now,'' said Baker. ``If they get a warning, they are ready to act. An hour's warning is enough for the power guys.'' The companies can reroute and reduce power, even go to a partial brown out to absorb any surge of energy from the sun, he said.

-- G Bailey (glbailey1@excite.com), November 21, 1999