Dolores Beasley

Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

William Steigerwald

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

(Phone: 301/286-5017)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N00-6

With a new technique that uses ripples on the Sun’s
visible surface to probe its interior, scientists are able
to see right through the Sun to observe active regions on
its far side, the side facing away from the Earth. With a
far-side preview, scientists may be able to have a week’s
advance warning of potential bad weather in space.

This new observation from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is the subject of a Space
Science Update at 1 p.m. EDT, Thursday, March 9, at the
James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St.,
SW, Washington, DC.

Panelists will be:

* Dr. George Withbroe, Science Director, Sun-Earth
Connection Program, NASA Headquarters
* Dr. Douglas Braun, solar physicist, NorthWest
Research Associates, Boulder, CO
* Dr. Craig DeForest, solar physicist, NorthWest
Research Associates
* Dr. Charles Lindsey, solar physicist, Solar
Physics Research Corp, Tucson, AZ

The event will be carried live on NASA Television with
question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the
briefing from participating NASA centers. NASA Television
is broadcast on satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at 85
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency
3880 MHz, audio of 6.8 MHz.

SOHO is a cooperative project between the European
Space Agency and NASA. The far-side helioseismology
research was funded by the National Science Foundation and
NASA.

-end-