Solar Storm’s Full Force to Miss Earth

Page 3 -- Over The Edge -- April 14, 1997

Scientists tracking a huge
magnetic cloud that blasted
from the sun and was hurtling
through space at more than a
million miles per hour say that
the full force of the solar storm
would miss the Earth.

U.S. National Aeronautics and

Space Administration
scientists were analyzing
satellite, spacecraft and

ground sensor data to trace the
precise path and effect of the
energy burst.

“You have to remember this
cloud is 30 million miles
across and has traveled 93
million miles to get here,” said
Barbara Thompson, a solar
physicist at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s
very difficult to tell when it’s
over.”

The solar storm packed
radiation with the potential to
disrupt communications

satellites and power grids,
although there were no
immediate reports of problems.
NASA’s readings late
Wednesday indicated the
center of the solar storm,
travelling at more than 1.5
million miles per hour, would
bypass the Earth, robbing it of
the power to cause major
disruption.

“The center of the storm will
miss the Earth, but it could be
broad enough to affect Earth’s
space environment and could
cause increased auroral activity
(Northern and Southern lights)
at high latitudes,” NASA said.
The space agency noted that
some solar storms had affected
spacecraft in orbit, shortwave
communications and power
grids. A similar storm on Jan. 6
may have caused the failure of
a $200 million AT&T Corp.
communications satellite.

“The storm is large in size.
However, it is moderate in
strength compared to many
others that have reached the
Earth in the past,” NASA said.
Don Savage, a NASA
spokesman, said it was clearly
a big solar storm and “a very
interesting scientific

-phenomenon.” But based on

what NASA called “classical
indicators,” it posed no danger
to astronauts and cosmonauts

in orbit or to the Earth’s
population.
NASA said when the

interplanetary storm struck the
magnetosphere-Earth’s
protective magnetic cocoon-on
Wednesday night, the Geotail
satellite, a joint Japanese-
NASA spacecraft, would be
ideally positioned to observe
activity.

Thompson said the chief threat
was to satellites, generators,

power grids and other systems
that relied on _ electro-
magnetics.

“These events have been
impacting the Earth for a very
long time,” Thompson said.
“The vulnerability we have ...
is that we are becoming
increasingly dependent” on
satellite communications.
Power companies in the United
States and Canada braced for
the possibility that the solar
storm could knock out
generating and transmission
systems.

“It has the potential to produce
a severe impact on the power
system ... and the potential to
produce large area blackouts,”
said John Kappenman,
supervisor of transmission
power engineering at
Minnesota Power in Duluth.
The solar storm was detected
on Monday by the Solar and

Heliospheric Observatory, a
WIND companion satellite that
NASA and the European Space
Agency launched in 1995 to
keep a constant eye on the
Sun’s surface.

In the worst recent geomagnetic
storm caused by “space
weather,” Hydro Quebec, a
Canadian utility, was plunged
into a blackout on March 13,
1989, nearly toppling the power
grid in the U.S. Northeast.

In January 1994, a multimillion-
volt solar storm knocked out
Canada’s main television
broadcast satellite, Anik E2.
The storm damaged the
momentum wheel, leaving the
“bird” spinning aimlessly in
orbit until it was recovered six
months later.

CEES.
S

(Cont. from page 1)

on to explain that NUGSS is
holding the protest in
opposition to the monopolistic
contracts that the university
holds with ICL and Pepsi Co.
“We're upset that in our
university, there is no freedom
of choice. He stressed the fact
that the prices (of ICL) are too
high and that the food in the
Wintergarden during the
weekends is inadequate.
Heather Dearing, the NUGSS
fundraising director added that
this is especially hard on
students that are living in
residence. Admittedly,
Maclvor stated that NUGSS
was holding this event to

create controversy, mostly as

a wake-up call to the university
about the fact that students
have concerns about the

freedom of choice, or lack of @

it, that they are receiving on
campus. “People like Pepsi
and people like Coke. Why
can’t people have a Coca-Cola
if they want to?” questioned
Maclivor. If any legal action is
taken by the university against
NUGSS, Maclvor claims that
the Society is prepared to deal
with the consequences. Until
then though, the society will
continue to promote an
awareness of these concerns.
Said Maclvor, “The Northern
Undergraduate Student
Society is trying to help the
university attract new
students. If they can’t do that,
then the populaties is only
going to decrease?)

Andrew Aucoin, the manager
of ICL food services on
campus, stated his concern
over the fact that the Student
Society giving away free pizza
has a direct effect on ICL’s
business. He also stated that
he is aware that the protest is
all about a freedom of choice
and ICL will take the steps
necessary to see what
improvements need to be made
to campus food services. He
stressed that if the students
concerns are the lack of choice,
he feels that ICL offers a wide

‘3 > ee a A
variety of choice and a high
food quality standard along
with competitive pricing, “In
comparison, the food costs are
about 15% lower than on other
campuses in the Lower
Mainland whereas we have to
pay approximately 12%,:more to
ship our products to Prince
George.” he said. Aucoin
preferred not to comment on
ICL’s monopolizing contract on

campus,

the basis that it was not his
area of administration and he

_was not aware of the details

surrounding the contract.

As the director of Student
Services, and thereby being
responsible to the students
needs on campus, Alex Reed,
stated that “The Student
Society has the right to take a
stand against the monopoly
contracts. However,” he
stressed, “they (NUGSS) must
be prepared to deal with the
consequences of its actions.”
He went on to stress that the

- £8
Student Society must
be aware that its
actions may affect the
livelihoods of others
on campus, especially
those employed by
ICL. Also, if the
Student Society has
violated a contract on
then what
position will this put
the university in? If

the university is put in a liable

situation, then who will
assume the legal and moral
obligations? Alex did say that
he would like to hear feedback
from the students about their
opinions on the ICL and Pepsi
Co. contracts, especially when
the time for contract renewal
comes around. “J will fight for
what is right and appropriate,
given the students needs.” he
claimed. Reed stated that he
is, by choice and by
administrative position, an
advocate of student concerns
and that he will fight for these
concerns when the contracts
with ICL and Pepsi are up and

the time arises to dispute their:

renewal if necessary.

This is the first time that the
Northern Undergraduate
Student Society has chosen to

security office to participate.

Photos (Left): John Stevenson, NUGSS chairperson, smiles
broadly as he hands out free pizza to students with fellow
NUG"ets" Heather Deering and Grant Leppi. (Below): The
protest caused quite a stir with students lining up back to the

actively oppose the university
by directly violating the legal
aspects of the university. The
basic consensus of the
administration is that this type
of a protest is a_bad incentive,
but since this has never
happened before, they are
unsure what their legal position
is. The directors of NUGSS are
aware of the incentive that they
are creating but they also
believe that the university
needs, as Ryan Maclvor stated,
a “wake-up call” to let the
administration know that the
students have concerns, in this
case about their freedom of
choice on campus, and that the
concerns of the students
shouldn’t be bogged down in
red tape and administrative
bureaucracy.

Pheto by Kevin Milos