what is sun outage?

Answer 1

When man made sattellites come between the earth and sun, the radiation from the sun disrupts the communication between the earth and sattelite. This happens bcoz the SUN is a powerfull source of electromagnetic radiation and interferes with the electromagnetic communication between earth and the sattellite.

Its like if you are using a flashlight to point something in the dark room, and suddenly the windows are opened, the strong light from the sun makes the light of your flashlight seem non existant.
The above example is not exactly right , but is only for your understanding.

Also visit this--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage

Answer 2

The more precise terminology is solar transit outage. The geostationary satellites are in a band that is directly above the equator of the earth. They appear to stay stationary at one pointing direction of the dish, but the sun travels across the sky every day. Because of the tilt in the earth spin axis, the apparent direction to the sun is usually north of the equator in the summer (north lattitudes) and south in the winter. About the time of the equinox twice a year it is closely aligned with the equatorial band, and for several days the sun will look like it passes directly behind the satellite for a couple of minutes. The sun is a source of random radio waves, so the earth dish is temporarily overwhelmed by the sun's radiation and the noise blocks the transmissions normally received. The exact time this occurs during the day depends on where the satellite is in the arc, if the satellite is at the same longtitude as the dish, then it occurs at noon. Westerly satellites at higher numerical longtitude will be later in the day. The duration and depth is mostly a function of the beamwidth of the dish, smaller dishes will see the sun for a longer time.

Answer 3

an eclipse