LASCO observed a full halo CME on 2001/04/01. A bright front first
appeared, filling the SE quadrant of C2's field of view, at 11:26 UT.
The bright front spanned approximately 180 deg from the NE to SW by
12:50, with fainter extensions around the rest of the occulting disk.

This CME has been determined backsided and was probably associated
with the long duration M5.5 X-ray flare observed between 10:55 and
13:24 by GOES. This flare can be discerned in EIT with apparent
peak activity at 11:00. Bright post-flare loops are evident on or
over the SE limb from about 12:00.

POWERFUL FLARE: The most powerful solar flare of the current solar cycle
-- an X10-class event -- erupted near sunspot group 9393 at 04/02, 2150 UT
on April 2nd. The explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection into space, but
the expanding cloud does not appear to be Earth-directed.

The biggest sunspot of the current solar cycle unleashed the most powerful
solar flare in at least 12 years yesterday.  The "X17" class eruption
blasted a coronal mass ejection into space and triggered an ongoing solar
radiation storm around our planet (4/3).

Monday's super solar flare hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space
that was mainly -- but not entirely -- directed away from Earth.  The edge
of the expanding CME passed our planet at approximately 1500 UT (11 am
EST) on April 4th.  Sky watchers should be alert for auroras after local
nightfall.  Almost certainly, this geomagnetic storm will be less intense
than the one on March 31st that spawned "Northern Lights" as far south as
Mexico.  Nevertheless, isolated severe storms are possible.

Apr 3, 2001 Shift Report
------------------------
An X17 class (VERY LARGE!) solar flare erupted at 2150 UT on April 2nd. The CME
was mostly non-earth directed(??). The hard proton flux as measured by GOES-8
rose sharply just before 0000 UT on April 3. The soft proton flux is about 6000
and slowly rising. 

Apr 4, 2001 Shift Report
------------------------
Radiation remains high. E1300 and P4GM rates exceed RadMon limits.
ACE proton rates have been trending down for several hours.
GOES proton rates were perturbed today by the passage of a shock in 
the IPM, but have a slow downward trend.

There was a radiation telecon at 2:30 pm EDT. It was decided that radiation
is too high to resume the full APR0501 science mission now. Only uplink 
Segment 1 of APR0501 to perform maneuvers to meet ACA Earth Avoidance
requirements during perigee. There will be another telecon at 10 pm EDT,
to assess radiation levels (based on ACE and GOES data only, since EPHIN
data will be dominated by trapped radiation during perigee), to decide
to proceed with the APR0501 science schedule or not.

- ACE flux levels in 130-214 keV channel about 100,000-200,000 and erratic.
- EPHIN levels during last pass:     
                         Rate   Limit
                E1300      20  (  10)
                P4GM  200-300  ( 300)
                P41GM       3  (8.47)
- GOES-8 P2 channel about 40 now (equates to 130 in P4GM channel)
- Will discuss alternative replans to Case 2 in load review at 11.
- Telecon at 2:30pm to go over radiation.
 
Apr 5, 2001 Shift Report
-------------------------
Decided NOT to restart loads last night due to continued high radiation, 
both moderately high ACE soft proton fluxe (25,000 at the time) and high rates in
the EPHIN monitoring channels during yesterday afternoon's pass (E1300 in 
particular). Other issues of concern were the ACIS outbound CTI, which
would have executed in the blind in high radiation, and the sensitivity of
the scheduled observation to high background.