It's "TIMED" To Say Happy Birthday

One year ago, on Dec. 7, the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

TIMED embarked on a two year mission to unlock the well-kept secrets of a mysterious region situated 40 to 110 miles (60-180 kilometers) above the Earth called the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI). The MLTI is a gateway region between the Earth's environment and space where the Sun's energy is first deposited into the Earth's atmosphere. Since the Earth's upper atmospheric regions are connected to the lower portion of the atmosphere where we live, scientists need TIMED to help them better understand the connection between these two regions.

TIMED, using its four instruments, will enable scientists to develop better predictive models of space weather's effects on communications, satellite tracking, spacecraft lifetimes, and degradation of spacecraft materials. Data obtained during the mission will help scientists better understand the energy balance within the MLTI region, establishing a baseline for future investigations of this region.

Science operations began January of this year, and as a result TIMED was gathering science data during the recent solar storms that occurred this past April. Several NASA spacecraft observed this strong activity as it came from the Sun. TIMED provides the critical link between what happened on the Sun and the Earth's response.

For six days in April, the Earth was subjected to a series of violent solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. CMEs send matter from the Sun towards the Earth at speeds of more than five million miles/hour creating shock waves ahead of them as they speed towards Earth. As these solar particles sweep into the Earth's magnetosphere, they trigger auroral displays and disruptions in radio communications. Following the solar events, dramatic changes in the Earth's atmosphere were observed.

TIMED is the first of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes mission, and is managed by the Solar Terrestrial Probes Office at Goddard for the Office of Space Science. The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel built and now operates the spacecraft, leads the project's science effort and manages the mission's Science Data Center for NASA.