2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID |
Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| SUN CRANKS OUT RARE COOKIE-CUTTER FLARE | G01-073 | 2/05/02 |
00:05:05 | Like snowflakes, solar flares that
blast off from the Sun are typically distinct, which makes a 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 the explosions in the solar atmosphere (flares) and
coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that hurl plasma through space to Earth.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): A View Over 3
Days - The event took place over 60 hours, starting on
November 24, 2000 with each solar explosion releasing approximately
100,000 times the energy used by every nation on Earth per year.
Many of the flares were also associated with an eruption of
electrified gas from the Sun, called a coronal mass ejection (CME).
During the period, 14 CMEs were emitted from the flare region. This
view is from the Yohkoh spacecraft.
Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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| ITEM (2): Solar
Explosions - This event provides useful information regarding
the link between solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
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. The Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft caught these images of the
event.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA
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| ITEM (3): YOHKOH
Spacecraft - Japanese for "sunbeam", the Yohkoh spacecraft
celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. Traveling in a 96-minute,
nearly circular orbit, it is the first spacecraft to continuously
observe the Sun in X-rays over an entire cycle of increasing and
diminishing solar activity (about 11 years). Yohkoh is an
international collaboration led by the Japanese Institute of Space
and Astronautical Sciences.
Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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| ITEM (4): 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
vantage point 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.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA
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| ITEM (5): Space
Weather - Hot material called plasma can interact with the
sunspot's magnetic fields and create violent explosions called
flares. Energetic particles and radiation from these flares often
result in coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that bombard Earth and can
affect everything from radio communication to power grids to
satellites and astronauts in space.
Courtesy: NASA
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Space Science Gallery