Part II SOHO and the Sun—A Revolutionary Relationship
The crew of the ISS absorbed about 30% fewer cosmic rays than usual,” says Frank Cucinotta, NASA’s chief radiation health officer at the Johnson Space Center. “The storms actually improved the radiation environment inside the station.”
On January 20, 2005, a dangerous X-class solar flare, a giant sunspot named “NOAA 720” erupted from the Sun to hurl a billion-ton cloud consisting of electrified gas outward into the solar system. Also called a coronal mass ejection, or a CME, solar protons erupting from it accelerated to almost light speed by the explosion that reached Earth-moon within minutes. The January storm was referred to as a proton storm which lasted for days, as it played havoc with many types of communication systems: ham radio communications were interfered with; satellites were zapped to the point they were short circuited, which caused computer reboots; and made astronauts or space travelers ill when it penetrated their space suits. From January 15 to the 19th, this particular sunspot “720” produced four of the most powerful solar flares known, exploding for the fifth time on January 20th.
Additionally, every day for two weeks in the early parts of September of 2005, solar flares erupted from another dangerous sunspot referred to as the “active region 798/808”. Earth’s upper atmosphere was hit with X-rays that ionized it, while other solar flares also hit the Moon. Especially vulnerable always is the side of the moon with the most light, completely exposed to solar flares, as it has no magnetic field for protection or atmosphere. The protons hit the surface of the moon or anyone who is walking on it with radiation symptoms occurring in anyone who happens to be in the way for several days: vomiting, fatigue, and low blood counts.
When the January storm hit the International Space Station, a phenomenon called “Forbush decrease” occurred, studied by an American physicist named Scott E. Forbush in the 1930s and 1940s. He found out that when solar activity is excessively high, cosmic ray doses drop when cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere of Earth. A secondary particle shower occurs which can reach the ground, where the measured cosmic rays will develop. He discovered that when the sunspots explode from the Sun, massive clouds of hot gas called CMEs are literally hurled away from the Sun into the solar system.
The CMEs contain gas and also magnetic force fields, which are basically knots of magnetism that have been ripped away from the Sun. According to NASA, any magnetic field deflects charged particles. So, when the CME charges past Earth, the magnetic field also sweeps away many of “electrically-charged cosmic rays” that normally would hit Earth. What has been surmised is that wherever the CMEs are, cosmic rays will be deflected, observed on Earth and in Earth orbit—onboard MIR and the ISS. Additionally, the Pioneer 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2, have also experienced them beyond the Neptune orbit
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