Images & Animations
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Credit
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Polar: PIXIE at Perigee on May 11, 1999 (North)
On May 11, 1999, the solar wind that blows constantly from the Sun virtually disappeared. Dropping to a small fraction of its normal density and to half its normal speed, the solar wind died down enough to allow physicists to observe particles flowing directly from the Sun's corona to Earth. This severe change in the solar wind also drastically changed the shape of Earth's magnetic field and produced a rare auroral display at Earth's North Pole.
An animation of x-ray images of the North Pole on May 11, 1999 taken by the PIXIE instrument on Polar, indicating enegetic electron fluxes striking the upper atmosphere
Metadata
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Sensor
Polar/PIXIE -
Animation ID
778 -
Video ID
SVS1999-0029 -
Start Timecode
1:01:28:19 -
End Timecode
1:02:22:02 -
Animator
Greg Shirah -
Studio
SVS -
Visualization Date
1999/12/08 -
Scientist
David Chenette (LMATC), John B. Sigwarth (University of Iowa), Mike Carlowicz (NASA/GSFC) -
Keywords
Aurora, Solar Wind, Electron Fluxes, Upper Atmosphere -
DLESE Subject
Space science, Geophysics -
Data Date
1999/05/11 -
Pao ID
g99-103_space -
Animation Type
Regular
