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Sophisticated ESA space weather tool under development   Space Weather data are vital to characterise solar activity and permit taking action to avoid damage to spacecraft in orbit. This image shows actual SEISOP data showing excess high-energy particles coming from solar activity, superimposed against an image of the solar activity, which occurred in December 2003.  The Sun unleashed a large (X-3 class) solar flare December 13, 2006 along with a coronal mass ejection (CME) that appears to be headed towards Earth. The source of these eruptions was the very active sunspot region 930. A shower of high-energy particles appeared as specks and white streaks on the imagers aboard SOHO, the primary watchdog for solar storms. The video clip from LASCO C2 coronagraph shows a CME emerging from behind the occulting disk and then almost immediately the imager is being struck by the particles (that travel at half the speed of light). Release date: 28 September 2007 |