2007 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| CAN SCIENTIST PREDICT THE NEW SOLAR CYCLE? | G07-027 | 4/25/07 | 9:00 | Scientists are currently formulating an official prediction cycle of the onset, duration, and intensity of the upcoming solar cycle with over 30 predictions differing widely in cycle onset, duration, and intensity. The cycle is associated with the reversal of the solar magnetic polarity with cycles running as short as 9 years and as long as 14 years. Accurate cycle predictions and solar storm forecasts are the first defense against damage to international communications, electronics, and satellites, plus the connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Old Sun-New Sun Comparison - The sun's seasonal cycle is usually about 11 years long. During one earth month, the number of eruptions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can range from zero to as many as 300. SOHO observations showed this dramatic change from solar minimum in 1996 (left) to maximum in 2000 (right). Animation follows.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA, NASA
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| ITEM (2): Multi-Image Solar Event - In this unique view, images from five instruments on three satellites are combined into one sequence. By combining the coordinated spacecraft datasets, this striking visualization provides a radical view of one solar event: a sunspot to a flare, to X-rays pinpointed on that flare and to the CME billowing out into space. Images are from SOHO, TRACE and RHESSI.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA/LMSAL
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| ITEM (3): Glimpse of Phenomenon on the Sun - The Hinode satellite has been providing the highest resolution images of the sun's active atmosphere and magnetic field, bringing scientists a step closer to understanding why the sun's atmosphere is so much hotter than its visible surface, and how violent solar storms are born and evolve in a massive release of energy. This video captured on December 13, 2006 shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA, NASA
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| ITEM (4): A Solar Flare Explosion - Solar flares are explosions in the sun's atmosphere, with the largest equal to billions of one-megaton nuclear bombs. Images of the sun reveal an extremely active surface with structures of hot, ionized gas called coronal loops. These loops emerge and disappear all over the sun's surface and can span a length of about 250,000 miles or about 30 times the diameter of Earth. These images are from TRACE and SOHO.
Courtesy: NASA/LMSAL, NASA/ESA
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| ITEM (5): Sunspot Activity - Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go. These strange and powerful phenomena are known as sunspots. They appear dark, because they are cooler than the solar surface due to a strong magnetic field that restricts the flow of heat from the sun's core. Predicting the behavior of a sunspot cycle is fairly reliable once the solar cycle is well underway.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA
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| ITEM (6): Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) - Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are violent discharges of electrically charged gas from the sun's corona. Solar storms begin with tangled magnetic fields generated by the sun's churning electrically charged gas (plasma). Like a rubber band twisted too far, solar magnetic fields can suddenly snap to a new shape, releasing tremendous energy as a solar flare or a CME. These CMEs can impact and disturb the Earth's magnetic field producing geomagnetic storms and beautiful auroras.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (7): SDO Being Built and Readied at GSFC - The Solar Dynamic Observatory or SDO, due to be launched next year, will be the first Space Weather Mission in NASA's Living with a Star program. Data obtained by SDO will be used to model the Sun's output and to predict when the Sun will have a large effect on the Earth and our technological society. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provides management and engineering oversight of the project. Animation follows.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (8): SOHO and Stereo Animation - Scientists' forecast of the solar cycle was aided by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) as well as historical records. A joint NASA/ESA mission, SOHO has been continuously observing the sun for ten years and carries a dozen instruments. The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) is a new mission where two nearly identical spacecraft provide revolutionary 3-D views of CMEs. They trace the flow of energy and matter from the sun to the Earth to help scientists understand why CMEs occur.
Courtesy: NASA/ESA/JHU APL
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