Space Weather Advisory Outlook #03- 12

Official Space Weather Advisory issued by NOAA Space Environment Center
Boulder, Colorado, USA

SPACE WEATHER ADVISORY OUTLOOK #03- 12

2003 March 25 at 10:42 a.m. MST (2003 March 25 1742 UTC)

**** SPACE WEATHER OUTLOOK ****

Summary For March 17-23

Space weather has reached strong levels during the past week. Two
category R3 (strong) radio blackouts occurred due to strong solar
flares originating from an active sunspot region on the sun. The first
one occurred at 1:05 PM MST (17/1905 UTC) on March 17th and the second
one occurred at 6:08 AM MST (1208 UTC) on March 18th. A category G2
(moderate) geomagnetic storm occurred on March 17th and a category G1
(minor) storm occurred on 18th March due to a high speed stream of
solar wind from a coronal hole on the sun. The high speed solar wind
interacts with Earth’s magnetic field and causes geomagnetic storming.
On March 20th – 21st a shock wave from the large R3 radio blackout on
March 18th reached Earth and produced a category G1 (minor) geomagnetic
storm. For a list of adverse system effects related to space weather
storms, please refer to the NOAA Space Weather Scales.

Outlook For March 26-April 1

A category G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm is possible around March 25th –
26th and March 30th – 31st due to a coronal hole on the sun. This
coronal hole is expected to have a high speed solar wind stream
associated with it.

Data used to provide space weather services are contributed by NOAA,
USAF, NASA, NSF, USGS, the International Space Environment Services
and other observatories, universities, and institutions. For more
information, including email services, see SEC’s Space Weather
Advisories Web site http://sec.noaa.gov/advisories or (303) 497-5127.
The NOAA Public Affairs contact is Barbara McGehan at
Barbara.McGehan@noaa.gov or (303) 497-6288.