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The
Latest Discoveries
Testing
Our Space Shield In
May the IMAGE spacecraft revealed a layer in the Earth's outer atmosphere that
acts like a heat shield; it absorbs energy from space storms, reducing their ability
to heat the lower atmosphere. However, it imposes a heavy toll: it creates a billion-degree
cloud of electrified gas, or plasma that surrounds our planet. So hot, this cloud
can disrupt satellites in mid-high orbits.
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Ion
Flow Animation
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3 | | | Plasma
flows with the solar wind around the perimeter of the Earth's magnetic field and
then returns through the interior of the system in a closed pair of flow cells.
SUPER: NASA
Fierce
Winds in the Solar Skies
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Image
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| | | In
May, scientists found that the ultra-hot outer atmosphere of the Sun is home to
storms and winds that rate at speeds up to 200,000 mph. These 'hypersonic gales'
are more important than gravity in determining the density of the atmosphere. SUPER:
NASA / ESA / LMSAL Seeing
the Corona
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Image
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| | | The
wispy white aura seen at eclipses is hot - about 1.8 million degrees, in fact.
The big mystery is that the Sun's atmosphere is much hotter than its surface -
opposite to the way heat is expected to flow.
SUPER: NASA / LMSAL Coronal
Loops on the Sun
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Image
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| | | Capable
of spanning several earths, loops of plasma (electrified gas) appear to trace
out the corona's complex magnetic field structure.
SUPER: NASA / LMSAL
Sun
Does the Wave
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Image
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| | | Like
fans doing the wave at a stadium, large cell-like convective features called supergranules
are propagating around the Sun like a wave, giving the illusion of the solar surface
rotating faster that other features, such as dark sunspots, etc.
SUPER: NASA A
Doppler Shift
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Image8
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of cells called supergranules covering the Sun's surface are most easily visible
in "dopplergrams." This can be thought of as a map of the speed of the
Sun's surface.
SUPER: NASA / ESA
Sun
Cranks Out the Cookie-Cutter Flares
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Image
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| | | Like
snowflakes, solar flares that blast off from the Sun are typically distinct, which
made this November 2000 event very unusual.
SUPER: NASA / ISAS
Solar
Explosions
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Image
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| | | 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.
SUPER:
NASA / ESA
June
10 '02 Annular Eclipse
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Image
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| | | The
June 10 solar eclipse was visible in most of the U.S. as it occurred just before
sunset. It was the last event visible over that much of the country until 2012.
SUPER: NASA Eclipse
Viewing Guide
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Image
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| | | Everywhere
but on the Eastern Seaboard, the eclipse was visible from start-to-finish, beginning
in late afternoon.
SUPER: NASA An
Annular Eclipse
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Annular
eclipses get their name from the ring of sunlight around the
edge of the Moon at the peak of the eclipse. In an annular
eclipse, the apparent size of the Moon is just smaller than
that of the Sun.
SUPER: Fred Espenak
The
Lasco Connection
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Image
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| | | The
SOHO spacecraft uses special cameras to generate a continuous artificial "eclipse
view" of the Sun to study the Sun's wispy white outer atmosphere, the corona.
SUPER: NASA / ESA
New
Solar Explorers
RHESSI:
Revealing the Solar Flare
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Image
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| | | Named
for Dr. Reuven Ramaty of the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Ramaty High Energy
Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) launched Feb. 5, 2002.
SUPER: NASA X-ray
of a Solar Flare
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Image
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| | | RHESSI
reveals the essence of a flare: the exact time and place where the energy is released.
It tracks the radiation released by flares in X-ray and gamma rays for the first
time.
SUPER: NASA / ESA / BBSO / NJIT RHESSI
First Light
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Image
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| | | First
images from RHESSI revealed a Feb. 20 flare; data is superimposed on images from
SOHO and Big Bear Observatory. Blue shows intense X-rays and red weaker ones.
SUPER: NASA / ESA / BBSO / NJIT
TIMED
For Action
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Image
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| | | The
Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft
was launched Dec. 7, 2001.
SUPER: NASA / APL TIMED
Scouting the Unexplored
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Image
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TIMED
studies the Earth's least understood regions of our atmosphere,
just at the edge of space (40-110 miles). It is home to low-orbiting
satellites.
SUPER: NASA / APL
Where
is the MLTI?
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Image
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| | | The
region can possibly serve as early signs of global climate change. It's too high
for airplanes or balloons and too low for most satellites.
SUPER: NASA
/ APL
Getting
to the SORCE
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Image
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| | | The
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) adds solar measurements to climate
models that often forget its influence. It launched Jan. 25, 2003.
SUPER:
NASA / LASP The
Sun & Climate Change
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Image
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| | | SORCE
measures the wavelengths of the energy reaching the Earth from the Sun.
SUPER: NASA / LASP Reigning
on Earth's Climate
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Image
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| | | A
balance between the absorption and reflection of solar energy exists. About 70%
of the Sun's energy is absorbed while 30% is reflected back into space.
SUPER: NASA
Radiative
Earth
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Image
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| | | A
view of Earth's output energy (thermal energy emitted into space) from the CERES
instrument, housed on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
SUPER: NASA
The
Solar Cycle
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Image
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Throughout
the Sun's 11-year cycle of activity, its yearly average total
irradiance during the cycle can change by 0.1% or 1.4 watts
per square meter.
SUPER: NASA
SORCE
of the Radiation
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Image
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The
solar cycle varies with the amount of sunspots and associated
faculae on the Sun. Faculae are the hot white spots in the
image that raise the total solar output.
SUPER: NASA / Mauna Loa Solar Observatory
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