Who's Afraid of a Solar Flare?
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07oct_afraid.htm
October 7, 2005:
Last month, the sun went haywire. Almost every day for two weeks in
early September, solar flares issued from a giant sunspot named "active
region 798/808." X-rays ionized Earth's upper atmosphere. Solar
protons peppered the Moon. It was not a good time to be in space.
Or was it?
During the storms, something strange happened onboard the International
Space Station (ISS): radiation levels dropped.
"The crew of the ISS absorbed about 30% fewer cosmic rays than usual,"
says Frank Cucinotta, NASA's chief radiation health officer at the
Johnson Space Center. "The storms actually improved the radiation
environment inside the station."
See: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07oct_afraid.htm
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