2003 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| VAULT: ROCKET TELESCOPE GETS CLOSEST LOOK AT SUN FROM SPACE | G03-045 | 07/09/03 | 00:11:12 | A specialized telescope launched aboard a sounding rocket enabled scientists to get their best-ever look at the Sun in ultraviolet wavelengths from space. Photographing areas as small as 240 kilometers (150 miles or 0.33 arcseconds) on a side, the images from the Very-high Angular resolution ULtraviolet Telescope (VAULT) will give solar scientists clues to one of their most burning questions: how the Sun's outer atmosphere (corona) gets heated to over 1 million degrees Celsius. Many space weather events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, originate from this layer of the Sun and affect satellite operations and power grids on Earth.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Solar Close-Up - Scientists compared VAULT data with satellite data from the same time period to correlate activity in the lower atmosphere (chromosphere), imaged by VAULT, with activity in the corona, imaged by the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellites. Scientists also checked the data against ground telescopes at Big Bear and Kitt Peak Observatories. These visualizations show data from the satellites and VAULT (inset and zoom) from June 14, 2002. The first zoom shows a quiet area of the chromosphere, the second a more active region, with colors enhanced to show detail.
Courtesy: NASA/NRL/ESA/LMSAL
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| ITEM (2): Coronal Loops on the Sun (G02-036) - The size of several Earths, coronal loops are loops of plasma (electrified gas) that appear to trace out the corona's complex magnetic field structure. Previously thought to be tubes of plasma trapped and enclosed in the arch-shaped magnetic fields of the corona, scientists now think that if this were true, the loops would not be visible due to differences in density. Rather, they think that the loops are hypervelocity currents of plasma blasted from the solar surface and squirted between the magnetic alleyways in the corona. In other words, the loops of plasma being propelled against solar gravity would be similar to the arc of water from a water fountain. At times the loops "snap open" in the form of a coronal mass ejection, releasing gas and particles out into space.
Courtesy: NASA / LMSAL
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| ITEM (3): Earth-Bound SHOTS of Plasma (G02-022) - These views came from two instruments on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft on April 21, 2002. The first shows a full-disk image of the Sun from the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) showing the 'explosion' on the Sun of the X-class flare. The latter image is from the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronograph (LASCO) instrument on SOHO, which mimics an eclipse to study the Sun's corona, that wispy white outer atmosphere of the Sun.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA
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| ITEM (4): SATELLITE SABOTEURS (G00-059) - Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are violent discharges of electrically charged gas (plasma) from the Sun's atmosphere (corona). The largest explosions in the solar system, CMEs launch up to 10 billion tons of plasma into space at speeds of one to two million miles an hour. They can not only disrupt communications systems, navigation systems, satellites and electrical power grids but also cause the auroras over the North and South Poles. The current 11-year solar cycle and its associated increase in flares and CMEs peaked in 2000.
Courtesy: Boeing
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| ITEM (5): Satellites at Risk >From Sun - The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are just one of the systems that have the potential to be affected by the onslaught of plasma from CMEs blasting off the Sun. An important navigation system operated by the U. S. Department of Defense, at least 24 GPS satellites operate at all times, with a number of spares. Each orbits Earth twice a day and flies at a height of about 11,500 miles at a speed of nearly 2,000 mph.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (6): Space Weather Woes ands Whoas - While electrified particles from the Sun in the form of CME's can certainly knock out power grids and interrupt satellite operations, they also interact with the Earth's magnetic field and produce the spectacular auroras, the Northern and Southern lights.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (7): Sounding Rocket Launch - B-roll of sounding rocket launch (two sequences).
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (8): TRACE Satellite (G98-015) - 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 that are invisible to the human eye, TRACE scientists are given dynamic views of solar explosions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (9): SOHO Satellite - The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft operates at a special vantage point about one million miles out in space between the Sun and the Earth. Its purpose is to give advance warnings of potential bad weather in space. Storm areas on the Sun's surface called active regions, can produce explosions called flares and eruptions of plasma (hot, electrically charged gas) called coronal mass ejections. This radiation and plasma can sweep past Earth and affect spacecraft, power systems, and radio communications.
Courtesy: NASA
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