Subject: [IGSMAIL-4724]: SIDC: input from you
From: Carine Bruyninx <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:45:49 +0100

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IGS Electronic Mail      25 Nov 00:43:52 PST 2003      Message Number 4724
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Author: SIDC (forwarded by C. Bruyninx)

Dear colleagues,

The SIDC, Solar Influences Data analysis Center, part of the Royal 
Observatory of Brussels, would like to ask for your help as a company or 
as a private person. First of all, I would like to sketch the background 
leading to this question.

The last week of October was a week of extremely high solar activity. 
October 28 and 29, the sun showed us some fireworks by producing two 
tremendously high energy flares each companied by a coronal mass ejection 
and a proton storm. The Rontgen and EUV radiation of these flares belonged 
to the most intense ever measured. Protons were hitting satellites and 
the earth, and disrupting technical systems. The impact of the coronal 
plasma cloud on the earth's magnetic field triggered a geomagnetic storm. 
This message relates to the consequences on earth. We take a pick from the 
large collection of possible consequences.
*       Technological systems situated outside the earth's atmosphere, 
        like satellites, were severely disrupted by the solar and proton 
        storms.
*       Pilots and aircrew were at that moment exposed to an elevated 
        dose of radiation.
*       On the ground level at earth, all technology depending on 
        satellites and radio communication were disturbed. GPS-users 
        could only determine their positions with limited accuracy.
*       Electricity failures,
*       Poor or even interrupted radio communication,
*       induced currents in pipe lines leading to a quick aging,
*       …...

Those solar phenomena fit into a larger framework: Space Weather. There 
is for sure a growing interest towards the influences of space weather on 
our earth, especially on our technological systems. These recent 
explosive events caused an even bigger interest from all sides of our 
society.

We are trying now to make a compilation of all disturbances noticed during 
that last week of October. From here we need your input as a company, or 
private person. We have 3 concrete questions:
1.      Were there any unusual disturbances or noticeable events?
2.      Did you take any measures or actions because of the expected 
        solar activity and storms?
3.      If you used our services during that crucial week, do you have 
        any remarks?
You can return us your answers by including them in a reply to 
us (Solar Influence Data Center <[email-masked]>).
As a scientific institute, but most of all as a forecast and warning 
center, we shall certainly appreciate your contribution.

We invite you to have a look at our website http://sidc.oma.be for more 
information about the general working of the SIDC as a space weather 
warning center. We provide you a timely service that allows you to act 
instantaneous on real-time developments in space weather. In the future, 
we will offer our clients a totally renewed website, to better meet the 
needs of companies and the general public. We thank you in advance and 
look forward to your possibly very interesting contribution.

The SIDC (Solar Influences Data analysis Center) team
Royal Observatory of Belgium