 | SOLARSTORMS A SPACEDAILY PRODUCTION |  |
| SOLARSTORMS A SPACEDAILY PRODUCTION | |
The recent series of eruptions on the Sun have affected telecommunication services in China, the official Xinhua News Agency disclosed yesterday (June 12).
The European Space Agency has agreed to fund the Ulysses mission for an extra 2 years 9 months. At its meeting in Paris on 5-6 June, ESA's Science Programme Committee approved the funds to continue operating the spacecraft from the end of 2001 to 30 September 2004.
Scientists have taken a major step forward in their quest to predict space weather, a term covering various events originating on the Sun that can seriously affect communications and electric power transmission lines on Earth and even modify the orbit of satellites.
STORM MECHANICS Sol Puts Spin On Its Mysteries Stanford - April 3, 2000 -  Scientists have discovered that two parallel layers of gas deep beneath the solar surface are actually speeding up and slowing down in a strange, synchronous pattern.MANAGING STORM THREATS Air Force Take Solar Maximum Threat Seriously Peterson AFB - April 3, 2000 - 
The Air Force Weather Agency, in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's Space Environment Center, produces and distributes alerts and warnings of space weather events.Massive Sunspot Cluster Warns Of Flare Danger Washington - March 2, 2000 - 
Two massive sunspots have satellite operators on high alert this week with a configuration that is magnetically unstable leading to more prolific solar flaring. |
A decades-old mystery about the behavior of magnetic fields in solar flares may now be solved, thanks to careful observations by a pair of solar scientists.
The sharp increase in solar activity which is being registered at the moment has not influenced the control of Russian satellites, the Russian Defense Ministry's Main center for spaceship testing and control has told Interfax.
The arrival from the Sun of billion-ton electrified-gas clouds that cause severe space storms can now be predicted to within a half-day, a great improvement over the best previous estimates of two to five days.