Results tagged “Space Weather”

Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather app. The mobile and tablet application integrates weather data from the Curiosity rover on Mars with weather data from here on Earth. The project aims to provide users with a sleek, visually appealing weather app that also incorporates information about the conditions and temperatures on Mars.

Also, a second companion app was created to augment the Sol experience. The augmented reality application offers two scenes for users to experience on Mars. The first scene allows users to a control a 3D version of the Curiosity rover as it rolls across the planet and through weather events, like a dust storm. In this scene, facts about Mars and weather on the planet appear as the rover moves around. The second scene is a 3D version of Mars that allows users to spin the planet around and read facts about the planet.

The M6.5 flare on the morning of April 11, 2013, was also associated with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later.

Something unexpected is happening on the Sun. 2013 was supposed to be the year of "solar maximum," the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low.

On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.

On Nov. 13, 2012, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 9:04 p.m. EST.

On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second.

One of the most frigid places on the planet appears to be an ideal location to help protect humans living and working in the cold of outer space against radiation bursts from the sun.

This image was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on July 19, 2012 of an M7.7 class solar flare.

This image, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on July 4, 2012, at 5:55 AM EDT.

The first images of an upward surge of the Sun's gases into quiescent coronal loops have been identified by an international team of scientists. The discovery is one more step towards understanding the origins of extreme space storms, which can destroy satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth.

With the impending solar maximum expected to bring heightened rates of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), putting at risk an ever-increasing human presence in space, Oh et al. designed and assessed a prediction system to keep astronauts safe from these solar storms.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M1.2 class flare on June 13, 2012.

Olso Physicists Use 20 New Satellites to Forecast Space Weather

"Universities around the world are now working together to understand what is happening at a micro-level in the plasma clouds. When they have found the answers, the space experts will be able to forecast space weather, just like meteorologists forecast the Earth's weather every day. UiO has developed very small instruments that can measure micro-structures and turbulence in the plasma clouds. The instrument consists of four needles that can be mounted on satellites about the size of a milk carton. No one else has managed this."

Our NASA solar scientists Holly, Alex and Phil answer some common questions about the sun, space weather, and how they affect the Earth. This is a two-part series.
Part One addresses:

In the grand scheme of the solar system, Venus and Earth are almost the same distance from the Sun. Yet the planets differ dramatically: Venus is some 100 times hotter than Earth and its days more than 200 times longer.

NASA Awards Grant to Chabot Space & Science Center For Space Weather Exhibition

"The centerpiece of the exhibition will be compelling high resolution imagery of the Sun from NASA's SDO mission, provided to Chabot by Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. The mesmerizing visualizations of eruptions, flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections are all the result of colossal magnetic disturbances taking place right next to our planet. Interactive stations in the exhibition will illustrate the outcome of solar storms, displaying colorful aurora, and forecasting geomagnetic storm warnings."

SDO Mission scientists participated in a briefing to discuss the upcoming launch and science of an unprecedented mission to study the sun and its dynamic behavior. The briefing on the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission took place in Washington and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Sun causes space weather - but Earth's weather could be responsible too.