+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server   + RSS Feeds Previous Animation Next Animation THEMIS explores the Earth's Bow Shock The solar wind's first contact with the Earth's magnetic field creates a region known as the bow shock, much like the bow wave of a boat moving through the water. This region can also create additional turbulence which generates bursts of explosion-like currents. In this visualization, the orbits of the THEMIS fleet are combined with a 2-D slice from a hybrid magnetosphere simulation which illustrates these turbulent regions in the bow shock. This hybrid magnetosphere simulation treats the slow-moving ions by particle-in-cell computational methods and the faster electrons as a massless fluid. These simulations more accurately represent the magnetospheric physics, enabling a view of turbulent non-linear processes not visible in the simpler magnetohydrodynamic models. In this simulation, the color table is somewhat unusual. In order of increasing density, the colors run from white through violet, blue, green to black.    This movie opens with a view of the five THEMIS satellites (the color dots) moving along their orbits. We then fade in the 2-D data from the Omidi simulation and zoom in to view the turbulence in the region of the bow shock. Duration: 13.0 seconds Available formats:   512x288 (30 fps) MPEG-1   5 MB   1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-2   19 MB   640x360 (30 fps) MPEG-4   3 MB   1280x720 (29.97 fps) Frames   320x180     PNG           269 KB   160x80       PNG           64 KB   80x40         PNG           17 KB   1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-4   35 MB How to play our movies    Opening view above the north geographic pole of the five THEMIS satellites in orbit around the Earth. Available formats:   2560 x 1440     TIFF 2 MB   320 x 180         PNG 246 KB    Moving down near the equatorial plane, the five satellite are near the apogee of their orbits. Available formats:   2560 x 1440     TIFF 1 MB   320 x 180         PNG 200 KB    Push in to a view of the satellites in the turbulent region near the bow shock. The 'bubbles' of violet and white surrounded by green and black illustrate broad the range of particle densities in this turbulence. Available formats:   2560 x 1440     TIFF 5 MB   320 x 180         PNG 271 KB    A later view of the turbulence which changes significantly on time scales of seconds. Available formats:   2560 x 1440     TIFF 4 MB   320 x 180         PNG 268 KB Animation Number: 3478 Animator: Tom Bridgman (SVS) (Lead) Completed: 2007-11-07 Scientists: Nick Omidi (Solana Scientific, Inc.)   David G. Sibeck (NASA/GSFC)   Vassilis Angelopoulos (University of California, Berkeley) Instrument: THEMIS Data sets: SSCweb   Omidi Magnetospheric Model Data Collected: 2007-06-25T00:00:00 to 2007-06-27T10:01:54 Series: THEMIS Dayside Science Keywords: SVS >> Geomagnetic Field SVS >> HDTV SVS >> Magnetosphere SVS >> Simulation GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Particles GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Particles >> Electron Flux GCMD >> Location >> Bow Shock SVS >> iPod More Information on this topic available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/northern_lights.html Science paper: Omidi, N., 'Formation of cavities in the foreshock' in 'Turbulence and nonlinear processes in astrophysical plasmas'. Editors D. Shaikh and G. Zank. AIP Conference Proceedings 932, 2007.     Please give credit for this item to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: