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ESA mission controllers react to solar flare

15 December 2006

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A significant geomagnetic storm impacted the Earth beginning early Thursday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, 14 December, according to forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo. Impacts from this event can cause problems with High Frequency communications, satellite operations and induce currents in power grids.

Credits: ESA/NASA

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Artist's impression of the SOHO spacecraft.

Credits: ESA (Image by Total Design)

Four-spacecraft Cluster II mission was one of the most affected

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Juergen Volpp is SOM for Cluster.

Credits: ESA-J.Mai/juergenmai.com

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Integral, ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, is gathering some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space. The spacecraft was launched in October 2002 and is helping to solve some of the biggest mysteries in astronomy.

Gamma rays are even more powerful than the X-rays used in medical examinations. Fortunately, Earth's atmosphere acts as a shield to protect us from this dangerous cosmic radiation. However this means that gamma rays from space can only be detected by satellites.

At time of launch, Integral was the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever put into space. It detects radiation from the most violent events far away and from processes that made the Universe habitable.

Credits: ESA

ESA deep space missions avoid harm

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Paolo Ferri is past Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM) for Rosetta and is now Head of the Solar & Planetary Missions Division in ESA's Spacecraft Operations Directorate.

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This chart shows the proton flux, or density, in the charged particle stream coming from the Sun, as measured by the GOES spacecraft and reported by ESA's SEISOP space weather assessment tool. The vertical scale shows particle density at three different energies, 0.8-4 MeV (megaelectron volts) in red, 15-40 MeV in blue and 40-80 MeV in green. The horizontal scale shows time between 4 and 13 December 2006.

Credits: ESA/ESOC

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