As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather
June 4, 2010: Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that's new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the National Press Club on June 8th.
2010年6月4日：地球和大空即將以一種方式接觸，那對人類的歷史是新的。為作好準備，在華盛頓的機構正要舉行會議： 6月8日在全國新聞俱樂部的大空天氣企業論壇。
Many technologies of the 21st century are vulnerable to solar storms. [more]許多21世紀科技很易受到太陽風暴傷害。 [更多more]
Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division, explains what it's all about:
美國宇航局太陽物理學組頭頭理查德費舍爾，解釋是什麼一回事：
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss."
“太陽是從沉睡中醒來，並在未來幾年中，我們期望看到更高水平的太陽活動。與此同時，我們的技術團已發展一前所未有對太陽風暴的感光度，這兩議題的交匯正是我們要聚在一起討論的。“
The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled "Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts." It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.
國家科學院兩年前已在標誌性的報告框架問題，題為“嚴重太空天氣事件 - 社會和經濟影響。”它指出人們在21世紀如何為基礎的日常生活，依靠高科技系統：智能電網、GPS導航、航空旅行、金融服務和應急無線電通信等，全都可被劇烈的太陽活動淘汰。學院警告，一個世紀級的太陽風暴，可能造成比颶風卡特里娜大20倍的經濟損失。
Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges. Preventative action, however, requires accurate forecasting—a job that has been assigned to NOAA.
"Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we're making rapid progress," says Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Bogdan sees the collaboration between NASA and NOAA as key. "NASA's fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what's happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment."
Click on the image to play a 39 MB movie about space weather and NASA's heliophysics fleet. [more]點擊這裡播放一 39 MB 的影片，有關太空天氣和美國宇航局的太陽物理學船隊。 [更多more]
Among dozens of NASA spacecraft, he notes three of special significance: STEREO, SDO and ACE.
STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is a pair of spacecraft stationed on opposite sides of the sun with a combined view of 90% of the stellar surface. In the past, active sunspots could hide out on the sun's farside, invisible from Earth, and then suddenly emerge over the limb spitting flares and CMEs. STEREO makes such surprise attacks impossible.
SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory) is the newest addition to NASA's fleet. Just launched in February, it is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Researchers can now study eruptions in exquisite detail, raising hopes that they will learn how flares work and how to predict them. SDO also monitors the sun's extreme UV output, which controls the response of Earth's atmosphere to solar variability.
On April 19, 2010, SDO observed one of the most massive eruptions in years. Earth was not in the line of fire ... this time. [full story]在2010年4月19日，SDO觀察到多年來最大規模噴發之一，地球不在火網上...這一次。 [全文full story]
Bogdan's favorite NASA satellite, however, is an old one: the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched in 1997. "Where would we be without it?" he wonders. ACE is a solar wind monitor. It sits upstream between the sun and Earth, detecting solar wind gusts, billion-ton CMEs, and radiation storms as much as 30 minutes before they hit our planet.
"ACE is our best early warning system," says Bogdan. "It allows us to notify utility and satellite operators when a storm is about to hit.”
NASA spacecraft were not originally intended for operational forecasting—"but it turns out that our data have practical economic and civil uses," notes Fisher. "This is a good example of space science supporting modern society."
2010 marks the 4th year in a row that policymakers, researchers, legislators and reporters have gathered in Washington DC to share ideas about space weather. This year, forum organizers plan to sharpen the focus on critical infrastructure protection. The ultimate goal is to improve the nation’s ability to prepare, mitigate, and respond to potentially devastating space weather events.
"I believe we're on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather." Fisher concludes. "We take this very seriously indeed."
For more information about the meeting, please visit the Space Weather Enterprise Forum home page at http://www.nswp.gov/swef/swef_2010.html.
欲了解更多有關會議，請訪問空間天氣企業論壇主頁在：
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef/
http://autumnson-nwo.blogspot.com/2010/06/nasa2013.html
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