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From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro
Subject: Aurora alert
Summary: Captain, sensors detect an ion storm approaching!
Message-ID: <12309@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 20 Oct 89 17:43:13 GMT
References: <1940@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (David Palmer)
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Organization: California Institute of Technology
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For all you Aurora watchers out there, there's a big solar flare going
on right now.

Yesterday the proton flux was 500 /cm s sr, which is considered a fair-sized
flare.

Today the flux is ~60,000 /cm s sr, and still rising.

Apparently the shuttle astronauts are well sheilded by the magnetosphere,
especially since they are in a low-inclination orbit, but the Galileo
fields and particles people here are excited, and anxiously waiting for
that part of the instrument to be turned on.

More as it develops.

		David Palmer
		palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu
		...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
	Meanwhile, on eng.string.floss, the waxed vs. unwaxed flamewar
	continues unabated.