Earths aurora, as seen by IMAGE.
This part of the Student Observation Network allows you to make observations to answer the question, "Have auroras been seen within the last 24 hours due to a solar storm?"
The Student Observation Network provides guided inquiry. While participating in the Auroral Friends program your students may think of other questions that they wish to investigate. For instance, they may wish to know; "What causes the aurora?", "What affect does a solar storm have on aurora?", and "What conditions enhance auroras?". These open inquiries may reveal to them that coronal holes may energize auroras even when solar storms have not occurred.
When the charged particles flowing outward from the Sun (the solar wind) hit the Earths magnetic field, they are channeled down the magnetic field lines to the ionosphere at the North and South Poles. The impact of these particles on atmospheric molecules causes the molecules to emit light, which forms the visible aurora. This visualization shows the development of the aurora over the North Pole for about three hours on April 17, 1999, as seen by the ultraviolet VIS Earth Camera on the POLAR spacecraft. The two main features of these ultraviolet images are the very bright ultraviolet emission from the reflected solar radiation on the dayside of the Earth and the bright ring of the auroral oval circling the North Pole. The aurora seen in this visualization is the diffuse aurora, a very large scale bright band that is actually too dim to be seen well from the ground by the human eye. What we normally think of as the aurora are the even brighter curtains of light within the diffuse auroral caused by very energetic electrons. These curtains are too small scale to be seen in this image. The diffuse aurora appears as a ring around the pole rather than as a bright spot over the entire pole because the solar particles actually spend extended time wandering about within the Earths magnetic field before traveling down a very select set of magnetic field lines to the Earth. Near the end of this three hour period, the spacecraft was getting so close to the Earth that the edges of the globe were outside the cameras image, which accounts for the growing circular data gaps over Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
Earths aurora, as seen by IMAGE.
The Digital Earth Workbench is an interactive application that runs on a SGI Onyx Infinite Reality system and is controlled by an Immersive Workbench, tracked stereo glasses, and a tracked wand. The application allows an unprecedented freedom to roam georeferenced datasets at multiple resolutions and timescales. This animation is one of a series of direct screen captures of the application in operation. The occasional menu appearance denotes direct intervention by the operator to add or delete data or to activate a new control option.
This magnetism teacher’s guide is one of four activity guides—plus a background guide for teachers—that provide students with the opportunity to build on science concepts related to Earth’s magnetism and its changes, as detected by THEMIS magnetometers located in schools across the U.S. The four activity guides have been used in different types of classes, from physical science and physics classes, to geology classes and astronomy classes. The excitement of actually participating in the THEMIS project helps motivate the students to learn challenging physical science concepts.
The background guide for teachers, the THEMIS GEONS Users Guide describes the important role that terrestrial magnetism plays in shaping a number of important Earth systems. It also explains the basic operating principles behind magnetometers—particularly the system you are now in the process of using to investigate magnetic storms at your school.
Earth’s Magnetic Personality is the fourth and final guide, which was developed with the goal that students can work directly with the THEMIS magnetometer data. The guide covers vectors, the x-y-z magnetometer plots, creating a prediction for aurora using the magnetometer data, calculating the total magnetic field strength and observing it over months, and the waves in Earth’s magnetic field excited by large magnetic storms.
Coronal Mass Ejections from sunspot 10484 sweep by the Earth on November 20, 2003, generating aurora displays worldwide. This view is from the Polar spacecraft with a false-color data overlaid on the Earths surface. Red marks the highest intensity, blue the lowest.
IMAGE-HENA observes the oxygen ions, expelled from the Earths atmosphere by the solar wind, return to the polar regions via the magnetic field.
IMAGE-HENA observes the oxygen ions, expelled from the Earths atmosphere by the solar wind, return to the polar regions via the magnetic field.
The IMAGE spacecraft observed intense auroral displays in the Fall of 2003 as the material from the coronal mass ejection swept past the Earth. The pressure against the Earths magnetosphere caused it to dump more electrons into the upper atmosphere, creating auroral displays, as we see here over the South Pole. This is a view of the IMAGE data reprojected onto a model of the Earth.
Learn more about the Northern Lights and demonstrate magnetic fields and north and south poles.
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Suns corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earths magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earths North Pole.
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Suns corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earths magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earths North Pole.
An animation of the visible aurora in the northern hemisphere on July 13, 2000 as measured by Polar
An animation of the visible aurora in the northern hemisphere on July 15, 2000 as measured by Polar
An animation of the visible aurora in the northern hemisphere from July 15, 2000 to July 16, 2000 as measured by Polar
An animation of the visible aurora in the northern hemisphere on July 16, 2000 as measured by Polar
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Suns corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earths magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earths North Pole.
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Suns corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earths magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earths North Pole.
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Suns corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earths magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earths North Pole.
