EIT Plume ImageSpace Science Gallery












  
2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES
 		
  



 
 

Tape Title
  
Record ID
  
Date Produced
TRT:
 

Synopsis
 




 
  2002 SUN-EARTH CONNECTION HIGHLIGHTS  G02-004  02/27/03 00:58:51 The year 2002 marked a period of surprises from our great star which should have been quieting down. It followed the two-year period considered the high point, or maximum, of the Sun's eleven-year solar cycle of activity. But 2002 seemed to be marked by sudden flares and coronal mass ejections, comet sightings and a peak sunspot count last seen in 2000. In addition, it was a time for NASA to launch and see returns on three new solar explorers that would measure solar output, reveal the essence of a solar flare, and study one of Earth's least understood regions of atmosphere for the first time. 


This video also presents a multi-mission approach to studying the Sun with a significant new visual that combines movies from five instruments on three satellites in one frame. With spacecraft continuing to pool their diverse data, it is hoped that returns like this one will be more and more common. 

NOTE:Within each slate are the spacecraft(s) and its respective instrument listed within brackets. Acronyms are spelled out at the end and available on the GTV web site: 
 (http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gtv.html) 



 
 

TAPE CONTENTS:
  






STAR OF THE SHOW

ITEM (1):        Multi-Mission View of the Sun In this new and unique view, images from five instruments on three separate satellites are combined in one frame. With so many coordinated spacecraft datasets and so many diverse assignments, this visualization is striking in that it lines up the data to provide a radical view of one solar event from sunspot to flare to the X-rays pinpointed on that flare to the CME billowing out into space. [SOHO/MDI, EIT, LASCO; TRACE; RHESSI] Credits: NASA / ESA/LMSAL

ITEM (2):        Full-Disk View With Soundtrack - At a distance of 93 million miles away, the effects of the Sun on Earth are unquestionable. It is coronal mass ejections blasting billions of tons of plasma into our magnetosphere with the potential to disturb space systems, power grids and communications. It is also a continuous input of radiation into the lower atmosphere to heat the planet. About 109 times the diameter of the Earth, the Sun is still providing scientists with a hotbed of mysteries to solve. This audio was derived from 40 days' worth of compressed vibrations and frequency sped up some 42,000 times.  [SOHO/EIT]  Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (3):        Amazing Changing Sun	(G00-102) - To recap, solar maximum is considered to be the 2-3 year peak period (2000-2001 marked the peak of this cycle) when the Sun's activity is most complex and turbulent, and the space around Earth is most disturbed.  The Sun's seasonal cycle is 11 years and is marked by disturbances to Earth known as coronal mass ejections and an increase in sunspots from a maximum of 200 to a minimum of a few dozen per month.  Shown are the dramatic changes on the Sun from solar minimum in 1996 to maximum in 2000.  [SOHO/EIT] Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (4):        Fountains of Fire (G01-006) - Close-up images of the Sun reveal an extremely active surface with structures of hot electrified gas ejections called coronal loops.  These loops constantly emerge and disappear all over the Sun's surface and can span a length of about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) or about 30 times the diameter of Earth.  At times one or more of the loops "snap open" in the form of a mass coronal ejection or CME, releasing gas and particles out into space. [TRACE]  Credits: NASA /LMSAL


ITEM (5):        Sunspots (G01-066) - Sunspots appear dark because they are cooler than the solar surface due to a strong magnetic field that traps the Sun's core heat from traveling to the surface like a bottleneck.  The average sunspot is about 4500 degrees C, while the surroundings are about 6000 degrees C.  Sunspots can last for weeks or more and can be as large as 80,000 km (over 6 planet Earths).  [SOHO/MDI]  Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (6):        How Do Active Regions Form? (G01-084) - Scientists know that the solar explosions called flares are driven by distorted magnetic fields that suddenly snap to a new, less energetic configuration, and that active regions are sites of strong magnetic fields.  By peering beneath the surface of AR 9393, scientists found that such regions are comprised of many small magnetic structures that rise quickly from deep within the Sun.  Other magnetic structures replenish these as they emerge, which makes the active region, home to sunspots, grow. [ANIMATION] Credit: NASA
 





BREAKING NEWS

ITEM (1):        What is a CME? - Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are violent discharges of electrically charged gas from the Sun's corona.  The largest explosions in the solar system, CMEs launch up to 10 billion tons of ionized gas into space at speeds of one to two million miles an hour.  CMEs can cause magnetic storms by interacting with the Earth's magnetic field, distorting its shape and accelerating electrically charged particles trapped within.  As such, they can affect communication systems, power grids and astronauts in space.	[ANIMATION] 
Credit:  NASA



ITEM (2):        Solar Fireworks - A group of sunspots measuring 15 Earths across produced some major solar activity the week of July 15. That Monday, a CME was released following a solar explosion, or flare, that measured X3 (X-class being the most powerful designation). Fortunately the CME was not heading directly towards Earth. Another very bright, fast CME was observed that Tuesday from a different solar region. That one was completely 'backsided', meaning it had no effect on Earth systems. The view from LASCO, which uses an artificial eclipse to block out the Sun, reveals a picturesque halo CME. The origin is next … [SOHO/LASCO, EIT] Credits:  NASA/ESA 


ITEM (3):        Spotting The Solar Fireworks - Sunspots are regions of strong magnetic fields on the solar surface much larger than the Earth. They produce flares and eruptions of plasma, or CMEs. The sunspot group designated 'AR 30' (for "Active Region") located near the middle of the Sun had been producing flares and other solar events since July 12. Here they are starting to decay, as the active region stretches 15 Earth-diameters from end-to-end. The twisted magnetic fields above it erupt into flares like that in the preceding movies.  [SOHO/MDI] 
Credits: NASA/ESA   


ITEM (4):        A Solar Grand Slam - As the world watched Tiger Woods attempt a golf grand slam in July, the Sun delivered a show of its own. Four powerful X-class flares exploded on the Sun in just eight days. Perhaps even more remarkably, the four flares came from three different sunspot groups. They consisted of: July 15, X3 class flare; July 18, X1.8; July 23, X3.3 and 4.8 flares from different sunspot groups.  Sunspots to follow … [SOHO/EIT]   Credits: NASA/ESA 

ITEM (5):        The First 'Keyhole' CME - "We've observed thousands of CMEs, but none ever looked like this one," said one scientist. When a CME, a billion-ton eruption of plasma from the Sun, erupted on Oct. 24, it had what appeared to be a dark area resembling a keyhole in the center of the explosion. It was likely caused by a combination of effects from nearby solar structures, SOHO's viewing position, and an enhancement from image-processing techniques. [SOHO/LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (6):        A 'Corkscrew' CME - This remarkable October CME vaguely resembles a corkscrew with twisted lines bursting from the Sun. Its unusual appearance is due to twisted solar magnetic fields, which steer the flow of the CME plasma. Part of the Sun's interior magnetic field becomes twisted from activity deep inside the Sun. It is eventually ejected from the Sun following an explosive energy release process.  [SOHO/LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (7):        A Prominent Prominence - Prominences occur when dense plasma at the solar surface becomes trapped in magnetic fields that are propelled high into the corona, or outer atmosphere of the Sun. Although scientists are not quite sure what pushes prominences into the corona and why they fly off into space, this huge cloud of cool, dense plasma made for an amazing solar view. This one was spotted Oct. 25. [SOHO/EIT]
Credits: NASA/ESA   


ITEM (8):         The View From Space - The FUV instrument observed Earth's response to the solar activity of that week in this Oct. 27 image of the Earth's magnetosphere bombarded by solar wind.  [IMAGE/FUV]
Credit: NASA 


ITEM (9):        Spectacular Solar Loop - A beautiful loop of magnetic energy large enough to encompass 40 Earth's was spotted by SOHO on July 1. Blasting off the Sun around 9:19 am EDT, prominences typically reach 107,000 degrees F - considerably cooler than the Sun's atmosphere of 1 million degrees. Scientists said that if the eruption of the prominence had been aimed toward Earth, it could have disturbed our magnetosphere resulting in auroras and other space weather activity. [SOHO/EIT] Credits: NASA/ESA 

ITEM (10):         Solar Comet Hunter (G02-066) - The SOHO spacecraft spotted its 500th comet on August 12, making it the most prolific comet hunter in history only six years after its launch. An amateur observer in Germany used the Internet to view the comet. Seen as early as 372 BC, Sun-grazing comets are believed to be the fragments from one great comet that split again and again producing the "Kreutz sun-grazer" family of comets. In May, over a thousand amateur astronomers tracked the SOHO site for comets and made predictions about the date and time that the 500th would appear. [SOHO/LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (11):         Dial-Up Comet Spotting (G02-029) - In April 2002, an amateur astronomer in China discovered his 14th comet via real-time images of the Sun on the Internet. XingMing Zhou who had been scanning the skies with the SOHO web site since 2000 (a marked improvement over the 16,000 hours he had spent scanning the sky with his telescope from 1985-2000). Named "C/2002 G" by scientists, Mr. Zhou's comet was spotted just two days prior to Astronomy Day.  [SOHO/LASCO]
Credits: NASA/ESA 


ITEM (12):        Other Comet Discoveries - On Jan. 9, SOHO watched as Comet Machholz passed by the Sun at the same time a CME erupted on the opposite side. The periodic comet was on the side of the Sun facing Earth, while the solar explosion blasted plasma from the backside of the Sun. Comet Machholz was about 22 million km from the Sun on an orbit that will bring it back in 2007. Venus is visible in the lower right part of these images.  [SOHO/LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA 

ITEM (13):          Looking Back on Earth - The aurora-watcher IMAGE observes ultraviolet light. But also visible is a light in the upper atmosphere on the Earth's dayside called 'dayglow' or 'airglow'. Solar radiation interacts with atoms & molecules tn the upper atmosphere creating photoelectrons which excite other atoms and molecules, thus creating the dayglow. When the shadow of the moon moved across the sunlit Earth, the photoelectrons were less efficient and dayglow intensity subsided. In fact the upper atmosphere in this visualization is glowing less brightly than usual.  [IMAGE/FUV] Credits: NASA
 





THE LATEST DISCOVERIES

ITEM (1):         Testing Our Space Shield (G02-033) - In May the IMAGE spacecraft revealed a layer in the Earth's outer atmosphere that acts like a heat shield; it absorbs energy from space storms, reducing their ability to heat the lower atmosphere. However, it imposes a heavy toll: it creates a billion-degree cloud of electrified gas, or plasma that surrounds our planet. So hot, this cloud can disrupt satellites in mid-high orbits. Here, plasma from a solar storm impacts the Earth's magnetic field, ejecting oxygen ions from the polar Ionosphere (highest layer of the upper atmosphere) in response to the bursts of heating caused by the massive electrical current generated. 
The ions flow along Earth's magnetic field lines until pressure from the solar wind stretches the field toward the night-side of the Earth like a rubber band. When the stretching is too great, the night-side magnetosphere snaps back toward the Earth, carrying the ejected ions from the ionosphere with it like an enormous slingshot.  These ions, now about 2,500 mps, appear immediately in the aurora and cloud of hot plasma that encircles the Earth during space storms. [ANIMATION] Credit:  NASA

ITEM (2):         Ion Outflow (G02-033) - The upper atmosphere absorbs some of the input energy by the pressure pulses in the solar wind and expels ions into the magnetosphere immediately. The LENA instrument aboard IMAGE looks at the reaction of Earth's atmosphere from the incoming solar wind.  Collected June 24, 2000, this shows the ion outflow over a period of almost one hour. The data shows that the ion outflow is prompt in response to the solar wind changes.	[IMAGE/LENA] Credits: NASA/ESA   


ITEM (3):        Expelled Ion Flow	(G02-033) - Protection from the solar wind comes with a high price because the expelled oxygen ions gain tremendous speed as they leave the atmosphere and become trapped by the Earth's magnetic field and ultimately encircle the planet, where they form a hot plasma cloud. Data using HENA on the IMAGE spacecraft shows that approximately half of the energy deposited by space storms in the outer atmosphere is absorbed this way. The oxygen appears in the aurora and the cloud of hot plasma that encircles Earth during space storms.  [IMAGE/HENA] Credit: NASA   


ITEM (4):         Ion Flow Animation (G02-033) - This animation is a simplified representation of the flow of plasma within the Earth's magnetic region.  Plasma flows with the solar wind around the perimeter of the Earth's magnetic field and then returns through the interior of the system in a closed pair of flow cells.  [ANIMATION]Credit: NASA 

ITEM (5):         Circuit Analogy Animation (G02-033) - TV and an aurora? In a television tube, accelerated electrons hit a phosphorescent screen and cause the phosphor to glow. The aurora is similar: accelerated electrons impact the atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere and cause them to glow, creating the aurora. The solar wind is the source for the circuit and the path of the electrons through Earth's atmosphere near the poles acts like a resistor. However, Earth's ionosphere also contains positively charged ions that are accelerated outward along magnetic field lines as electrons are accelerated downward. [ANIMATION]Credit: NASA 


ITEM (6):       Cold Plasma Erosion Image (G02-033) - The strong circulation flow in the magnetosphere during space storms produces dramatic changes in the plasmasphere - the region nearest Earth within the magnetosphere. A plume of plasma is stripped away, forming a plume of plasma that is carried toward the Sun.  Ultraviolet sunlight ionizes our upper atmosphere producing the plasmasphere, whose plasma particles are a cold, dense mixture of electrons and ions. [IMAGE] Credit: NASA 


ITEM (7):        Plasmasphere Tails & Radio Navigation (G02-033) - The EUV instrument on IMAGE captured this image of the plasmasphere forming a plume. North Pole is at the top, Sun is at the bottom. Formation of a large-scale plasma plume can be seen in the lower right, a region where inner plasmasphere is being pulled away from Earth and towards the Sun. The aurora is clearly seen at polar latitudes and the plasmasphere extends outward around Earth. These plumes extend down to the Ionosphere, where their edges cause deflection of the radio waves used in GPS.  [IMAGE/EUV] Credit: NASA 

ITEM (8):         Ionospheric Effects on GPS	(G02-033) Combining data from 150 ground-based GPS receivers and ground-based radar observations, the dramatic ionospheric structures spanning North America can be seen. Large-scale features stretching from Washington, over the Great Lakes and into Canada, map directly into the plasmaspheric plumes seen in the IMAGE / EUV observations. These plumes and clouds of ionization are a space weather hazard and can be responsible for the degradation and breakdown of navigation and communication links. Credits: NASA/MIT 


ITEM (9):         Fierce Winds In The Solar Skies (G02-036) In May, scientists found that the ultra-hot wispy outer atmosphere of the Sun is actually home to storms and winds that rate at speeds up to 200,000 mph. The corona is so dynamic, these 'hypersonic gales' are more important than gravity in determining the density of the atmosphere. If these winds were on Earth, they would be over 3,000 mph. [SOHO/EIT; TRACE] Credits: NASA/ESA/LMSAL


ITEM (10):        Seeing The Corona (G02-036) - The Sun's coronal temperature is quite a mystery for scientists. That wispy white aura seen at eclipses is hot - about 1.8 million degrees, in fact. The big mystery is that the Sun's atmosphere is much hotter than its surface, which is a relatively cool 10,000 F (5500 C). This is opposite to the way heat is expected to flow.  [TRACE] Credits: NASA/LMSAL   


ITEM (11):        Sun Cranks Out Cookie-Cutter Flares (G01-073) - Like snowflakes, solar flares that blast off from the Sun are typically distinct, which made this November 2000 event very unusual.  Flares get their energy from the destruction of magnetic fields in the Sun's atmosphere, which can't repeat in exactly the same way.  This provides scientists with a better understanding of the organization of magnetism beneath the surface of the Sun, plus a new perspective at the little-understood link between flares (explosions in the corona) and CMEs that hurl plasma through space to Earth.  [YOHKOH] Credits: NASA /ISAS  


ITEM (12):        Solar Explosions (G01-073) - CMEs play a role in 'space weather', solar disturbances that can affect Earth's communication and power systems. Typically scientists take long-duration flares (2+ hours) as a warning of impending CMEs; in this case, 14 CMEs were emitted from the flare region even though five of the six flares were of a short duration.  [SOHO / EIT,  LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA 

ITEM (13):        June 10  '02 Annular Eclipse	(G02-040) - The June 10 solar eclipse was visible in most of the U.S. as it occurred just before sunset. It was the last event visible over that much of the country until 2012. This animation shows the path over eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean and much of North America. Some locations saw over 99% of the Sun's disk hidden by the moon (hence an annular as opposed to total eclipse). [ANIMATION] Credit: NASA


ITEM (14):        Eclipse Viewing Guide - Still	(G02-040) - In most locations, the eclipse was visible from start-to-finish, beginning in late afternoon. Most residents along the Eastern Seaboard missed out entirely because the sunset occurred before the eclipse got underway.  Observers along a line from Houston, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit, got a clear view. [ANIMATION] Credit: NASA 


ITEM (15):        An Annular Eclipse (G02-040) Annular eclipses get their name from the ring of sunlight around the edge of the Moon at the peak of the eclipse.   In an annular eclipse, the apparent size of the Moon is just smaller than that of the Sun. On June 10th some locations saw more than 99% of the Sun's disk eclipsed by the Moon. [ANIMATION] Credit: Fred Espenak / http://www.mreclipse.com/ 

ITEM (16):         The LASCO Connection (G02-040) - The SOHO spacecraft uses special cameras to generate a continuous artificial "eclipse view" of the Sun to study the Sun's wispy white outer atmosphere, the corona. These images were taken using the LASCO (Large-Angle and Spectrometric Coronograph) instrument. [SOHO/LASCO] Credits: NASA/ESA


ITEM (17):        A Total Eclipse '98 (G01-089) For comparison, a total eclipse occurs if the Moon is near the Earth in its orbit. An annular eclipse occurs if the Moon is farther from the Earth in its orbit. During an annular eclipse, the Moon appears smaller because it is farther away from the Earth and does not completely cover the Sun. This time-lapse sequence from the GOES 10 spacecraft shows the shadow of the Moon as it first touches the Earth in the Pacific Ocean, then races along the Pacific. [GOES] Credits: NASA /NOAA
 






NEW SOLAR EXPLORERS

ITEM (1):         RHESSI: Revealing the Solar Flare - Launched February 5, the RHESSI spacecraft is starting to reveal the essence of a solar flare: the exact time and place where the energy is released. For the first time, it tracks the radiation released by flares in X-ray and gamma rays to help understand space weather and its effect on Earth systems. This moderately powerful Feb. 20 flare is first imaged by SOHO with RHESSI data super-imposed on b & w images from ground-based telescopes at the Big Bear Observatory; blue shows the most intense X-ray emissions and red the weakest. Because the flare was relatively weak, there was no gamma rays observed that would have shown protons. Note: this was the first view from RHESSI - subsequent visualizations developed a different treatment with different colors. [SOHO / EIT; BBSO; RHESSI] Credits: NASA/ESA / BBSO/NJIT

ITEM (2):        Newest RHESSI Release - June marked the next release of RHESSI images in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society meeting. RHESSI results of a large X-class flare (April 21) are superimposed on images from TRACE. Said one scientist: "We can determine exactly where and when energy is released in the solar atmosphere, and identify its form." It was a surprising discovery because the X-rays were emitted well before the ultraviolet part of the flare, contrary to current thought. [RHESSI; TRACE] Credits: NASA/LMSAL    


ITEM (3):         TIMED: Scouting the Unexplored Mesosphere (G02-022) - Thought we had explored all of Earth by now? The TIMED spacecraft released its first images of one of Earth's least understood regions of our atmosphere - the 'Mesosphere, Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere' (MLTI) in May. TIMED tracked activity from an April 2002 solar storm in the MLTI - about 40-110 miles (60-180 km), just at the edge of space. Scientists hope to reveal how it affects and is changed by Earth's lower atmosphere and how it influences the space near Earth occupied by low-orbiting satellites.
The first sequence shows intense auroras in red, over the northern (left) and southern (right) polar regions during solar storms in April. Data from the GUVI instrument on TIMED is superimposed on Earth to show the location of the auroras. The second shot is from the SABER instrument; it shows high levels of nitric oxide (red), a cooling agent used to track upper atmospheric wind patterns. [TIMED/GUVI, SABER]
Credits: NASA/APL


ITEM (4):        Where is the MLTI?	(G02-022) - The MLTI region is home to electric currents that produce the aurora and can possibly serve as early warning signs of global climate change. It was hard to study because it's too high for airplanes or balloons and too low for most satellites. Studying it should help understand how solar activity threatens to drag low-orbiting satellites back toward Earth and improve space weather predictions upon which communications, satellite tracking, and spacecraft reentry plans hinge.  [ANIMATION] Credits: NASA/APL    


ITEM (5):        'Closest Thing to Being There'	(G02-022) - A closer view of the flare on April 21 from the TRACE spacecraft. The X1.5 flare was associated with sunspot group 9906, a particularly active region that produced multiple flares and CMEs that resulted in aurora on Earth. X-class flares are accompanied by coils of hot, electrified gas known as coronal loops. Typically appearing above sunspots, the loops are often more than 300,000 miles high and capable of spanning 30 Earths.  [TRACE] Credits: NASA/LMSAL


ITEM (6):        Earth-Bound Shots of Plasma	(G02-022) - How much of climate change is due to man versus naturally occurring? Launched in January 2003, SORCE is tracking the amount & destination of solar radiation entering Earth's system. It also gives indication of change within the Sun over its 11-year cycle. This shows the wavelengths of the energy reaching the Earth from the Sun. Earth absorbs 70% of the Sun's output: about 1% absorbed by the upper atmosphere, 20 - 24% in the lower atmosphere and the remaining 46 - 50% of visible light is absorbed by the land and the oceans. [ANIMATION]
 Credit: NASA


ITEM (7):        Reigning on Earth's Climate	(G02-079) - A delicate balance between the absorption and reflection of solar energy exists. About 70% of the energy that reaches Earth is absorbed, while the other 30% is reflected back into space by atmosphere and aerosols, ocean/land and clouds. A closer view reveals a release of energy by rocks, air and sea warming and emitting increasing amounts of thermal radiation (heat) in the form of long-wave infrared light allowing Earth to lose heat at the same rate it gains from the Sun. [ANIMATIONS] Credit: NASA 

ITEM (8):        Radiative Earth	(G02-079) A view of Earth's output energy (thermal energy emitted into space) from the CERES instrument, housed on the Terra and Aqua satellites. Heat energy radiated from the Earth is shown in varying shades of yellow, red, blue and white. The brightest yellow areas, such as the Sahara Desert, are emitting the most energy out to space, while the dark blue polar regions and bright white clouds are the coldest areas on Earth and are emitting the least energy.  [TERRA/CERES] Credit: NASA 


ITEM (9):         The Solar Cycle	(G02-079) Throughout the Sun's 11-year cycle of activity, its yearly average total irradiance during the cycle can change by 0.1% or 1.4 watts per square meter. It was close to a 0.5% difference in output that brought about the 'Little Ice Age' from 1645-1715. That was enough to freeze rivers in Europe and alter seasons in other parts of the world. [ANIMATION] Credit: NASA


ITEM (10):         Sorce of the Radiation	(G02-079) The solar cycle varies with the amount of sunspots and associated faculae on the Sun. Variations in solar output are due to a balance between decreases caused by sunspots (relatively cold bottlenecks of magnetic fields on the hot solar surface) and associated bright areas called faculae (relatively hotter groupings of magnetic fields).  The effects of the faculae tend to beat out those of the sunspots so that the hot faculae raise the total solar output more than the cooler sunspots subtract.  [MLSO IMAGE]  Credits: NASA/Mauna Loa Solar Observatory
 






THE 
SPACECRAFT

ITEM (1):        The Current Fleet (G00-012)  - This animation shows the current orbits of closely coordinated spacecraft: GEOTAIL, WIND, POLAR, SOHO and Cluster. Previously under the International Terrestrial Physics Program (ISTP), these Sun-Earth Connection operating missions bring together diverse views of the Sun, Earth and space in-between and often collaborate with ground-based observatories.  Credit:  NASA 

ITEM (2):        The Future Fleet (G00-012)  - To better study solar variability and understand its effect on humanity, NASA and other federal agencies are beginning a multi-year program called "Living with a Star."  A set of missions and enhancements to current programs, the goal is to provide new capabilities for understanding the solar flares and coronal mass ejections that send electrified gas toward Earth and ultimately better predicting the effects of "solar weather" on Earth. Credit: NASA    


ITEM (3):        ACE Spacecraft  - The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft is designed to identify matter that comes near the Earth and to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of the solar system. This matter can come from the Sun, the 'space'
between planets, and the Milky Way galaxy. When reporting space weather, ACE can provide an advanced warning (about 1 hour) of geomagnetic storms that can affect Earth systems. It was launched on August 25, 1997. Credits: NASA/ISAS


ITEM (4):       Cluster Spacecraft - Four identical spacecraft carrying a complement of 11 identical instruments each, were launched in July and August 2000. The four fly in a close pyramid formation, giving scientists three-dimensional views of near-Earth space. Specifically they investigate
the solar wind as it crashes into our planet's magnetosphere. Credits: NASA/ESA 


ITEM (5):       GEOTAIL Spacecraft - A joint US/Japanese project, 'Geotail' was the first in a series of five satellites to better understand the interaction of the Sun, the Earth's magnetic field and the Van Allen radiation belts. Located in the magnetic tail of the magnetosphere on the night side of
the Earth, an area critical to understanding the interaction of the Sun and Earth, its primary objective is to study dynamics of the  Earth's magnetotail. The spacecraft was launched on July 24, 1992. 


ITEM (6):       IMAGE Spacecraft (G02-033)  - Launched on March 25, 2000, the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft obtains continuous global images of charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere and tracks these solar storms. One such storm can launch huge amounts of plasma from the Sun at more than 1 million mph and affect Earth systems. Credit: NASA


ITEM (7):       POLAR Spacecraft  - 'Polar' was launched on February 24, 1996 to study the geospace, or Earth's space environment. It performs simultaneous, coordinated measurements of key regions including observations of the entry and transport of solar plasma over Earth's magnetic poles, imaging of the northern aurora (Northern Lights), and investigations of solar wind properties. Credit:  NASA 

ITEM (8):       RHESSI Spacecraft (G02-021) The Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft watches the Sun in X-rays and gamma rays.  RHESSI is the first spacecraft to make high-resolution movies of flares using their high-energy radiation.  Launched on Feb. 5, 2002, its primary objective is to study the secrets of how solar flares are produced in the Sun's atmosphere.  RHESSI orbits Earth about 15 times a day and spins on its axis every 4 seconds. Credit:  NASA 


ITEM (9):       SOHO Spacecraft  - Advance warning of potential bad weather in space is now possible thanks to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft launched in 1995. SOHO operates at a vantagepoint of about 1 million miles out in space between the Sun and Earth.
It carries 12 instruments and is a joint project with the European Space Agency. 
Instruments include the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) that allows scientists to use a sort of ultrasound capability to see the far side of the Sun and inside it. The Large Angle Spectrometric Coronograph (LASCO) mimics an eclipse in order to study the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) allows for a full-disk view of the Sun. Credits:  NASA/ESA 


ITEM (10):       SORCE Spacecraft (G02-079) - The SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) maintains a 24-year legacy of solar output monitoring that should help explain and predict the effect of the Sun on the Earth's atmosphere and climate. With four instruments, it orbits Earth 15 times a day and analyzes the Sun's energy in visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths that can be used to determine solar heating of Earth's oceans, ice, land and absorbing layers of the atmosphere. SORCE launched in January 2003. Credits:  NASA/LASP 


ITEM (11):       TIMED Spacecraft (G01-022)  - Launched in Dec. 2001, the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere-Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft is the first to  study the region of our atmosphere that acts as a gateway between Earth's environment and space, called the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/ Ionosphere (MLTI). Scientists hope to get a better understand of how Earth's environment and surroundings are impacted by solar energy. Credits:  NASA/APL 


ITEM (12):       TRACE Spacecraft (G02-036) NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) points its powerful telescope at the "transition region" of the Sun's atmosphere, a highly volatile and dynamic region. Sensitive to ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths of light, which are invisible to the human eye, scientists are given dynamic views of solar explosions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). TRACE was launched on April 1, 1998. Credits:  NASA/LMSAL 

ITEM (13):       WIND Spacecraft  - The 'Wind' spacecraft provides complete plasma, energetic particle, and magnetic field input for magnetospheric and ionospheric studies. It detects the magnetic field carried by coronal mass ejection clouds, but its location only allows scientists about an hour's notice. It can estimate how severe the space storm will be by measuring the direction of the magnetic field, though. It was launched on November 1, 1994. Credit:  NASA


ITEM (14):       YOHKOH Spacecraft (G01-073)  - Japanese for "sunbeam", the Yohkoh spacecraft launched in August 1991 and was the first spacecraft to continuously observe the Sun in X-rays over an entire cycle. It experienced a spacecraft failure during the December 14, 2001 eclipse when it lost its view of the Sun and the batteries discharged. Studying high-energy solar flares to scrutinize where and how the energy is released, researchers will be analyzing data gleaned from the spacecraft for some time to come.
 Credits:  NASA/ISAS		 





RESOURCE MATERIAL

ITEM (1):        Auroras  - The aurora is one of the effects caused by exposure of the Earth's poles to the CMEs that zip through the magnetosphere and if energized enough, slam into the atmosphere to create a light show. In the Northern Hemisphere it's referred to as the aurora borealis or northern lights; in the Southern Hemishpere it's either the aurora australis or southern lights. Credit:  NASA 

ITEM (2):        Scientist B-roll  - Footage of NASA solar scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and NOAA scientists at the Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, Co. Credit: NASA 


ITEM (3):       LASP Science Facility (G02-079) - For the next five years, university professionals, academic researchers and University of Colorado students will be operating and analyzing data from the SORCE spacecraft. The Laboratory for Atmospheric Physics (LASP) is located at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Co.
 Credits:  NASA/LASP


ITEM (4):       Sun Stuff B-roll - Resource footage shot of the Sun from the mountains of Boulder, Colorado. Credit:  NASA
 





 


 



[Solar Signature Movie]
[Multi-Mission View of the Sun Movie]
[Under a Sunspot Movie]
[Sunspot Movie]
[What is a CME? Movie]
[Solar Fireworks Movie]
[Spotting Solar Fireworks Movie]
[Solar Grand Slam Movie]
[The First 'Keyhole' CME Movie]
['Corkscrew' Movie]
[Prominent Prominence Movie]
[Solar Comet Hunter Movie]
[Other Comet Discoveries Movie]
[ Ion Outflow Movie]
[Expelled Ion Flow Movie]
[Ion Flow Movie]
[Fierce Winds in Solar Skies Movie]
[Sun Does The Wave Movie]
[Doppler Shift Movie]
[Solar Cookie-Cutter Flare Movie]
[June 10 '02 Annular Eclipse Movie]
[An Annular Eclipse Movie]
[ Lasco Connection Movie]
[TIMED Scouting the Unexplored Movie]
[SORCE Movie]
[The Sun & Climate Change Movie]
[Reigning on Earth's Climate Movie]
[The Solar Cycle Movie]
[SORCE of the Radiation Movie]






NOTE:  The material advertised on this page is a "Resource Tape" and is strictly recommended for the media and production companies.  This is NOT a finished production and contains no narration.
 



 




[HOME]
[Return to the Earth Science Catalog]
[How to order videotapes]




 

 Goddard TV 1999 ©