Heliophysics Sentinels 2020

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    How NASA Will Protect Astronauts From Space Radiation

    Aug. 7th, 2019

    Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.Music credits: “Boreal Moment” by Benoit Scarwell [SACEM]; “Sensory Questioning”, “Natural Time Cycles”, “Emerging Designer”, and “Experimental Design” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Superluminal” by Lee Groves [PRS], Peter George Marett [PRS] from Killer Tracks GIFApollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell prepare to plant the American flag on the Moon's surface. Credit: NASA GIFThe Aug. 7, 1972, solar flare was captured by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California. This particular flare — known as the seahorse flare for the shape of the bright regions — sparked a strong SEP event that could have been harmful to astronauts if an Apollo mission had been in progress at the time.Credit: NASA The lunar rover vehicle during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972. The lunar roving vehicle -- which was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center -- was used for collecting rocks and data on the lunar highlands. Credit: NASA August 1972, as NASA scientist Ian Richardson remembers it, was hot. In Surrey, England, where he grew up, the fields were brown and dry, and people tried to stay out of the Sun, indoors and televisions on. But for several days that month, his TV picture kept breaking up. “Do not adjust your set,” he recalls the BBC announcing. “Heat isn’t causing the interference. It’s sunspots.”The same sunspots that disrupted the television signals led to enormous solar flares — powerful bursts of radiation from the Sun — Aug. 4-7 that year. Between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, the solar eruptions were a near miss for lunar explorers. Had they been in orbit or on the Moon’s surface, they would have sustained dangerous levels of solar radiation sparked by the eruptions. Today, the Apollo-era flares serve as a reminder of the threat of radiation exposure for technology and astronauts in space. Understanding and predicting solar eruptions is crucial for safe space exploration. Almost 50 years since those 1972 storms, the data, technology and resources available to NASA have improved, enabling advancements towards space weather forecasts and astronaut protection — key to NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon.Read more on NASA.gov. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays) Related pages

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    NASA's Mission Through Dangerous Space Is Going Out in Style

    Feb. 11th, 2019

    B-roll for Van Allen Probe Live Shot. Answers the following suggested questions: You may think space is empty, but there is a lot there that we can’t see. What are space weather and radiation belts?How do you observe the radiation belts?A new radiation belt was discovered several years ago. Tell us about that discovery.Can you tell us about the final mission that the Van Allen probes are going on?How do radiation belts affect space travel, astronauts and the space station?Where can we learn more? Canned interview with NASA scientist Dr. Nicky Fox looking off camera. Soundbites are separated by slates. Canned interview with NASA scientist Dr. David Sibeck. Soundbites are separated by slates. Canned interview with Dr. Nelli Mosavi, project manager for the Van Allen Probes at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Soundbites are separated by slates. Van Allen Probes animation NASA’s probe to understand a mysterious region around Earth is coming to an end. After a six and a half year long journey, the Van Allen Probes are going on one last mission. THIS WEEK NASA will move its twin Van Allen Probe satellites into a lower orbit as they begins their swan song — their last year to explore the hazardous radiation belts that surround Earth. In addition to providing non-stop observations of this little-explored region, it will act as a real-time experiment of how elements in the atmosphere can cause instruments to degrade in space.The Van Allen Probes launched in 2012 to explore the twin radiation belts around Earth; their mission had been expected to end in 2018. Unexpectedly resistant to the high-energy radiation coursing through the region, the spacecraft were hardy enough that — with some savvy fuel conservation — the mission could be extended another year. By studying the doughnut-shaped rings of radiation and how well spacecraft can survive there, NASA can better understand how radiation affects astronauts and technology sent into space. Join NASA scientists from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, February 12, to learn about the Van Allen Probes’ final operation.** To schedule an interview, fill out THIS FORM** satellite coordinates HD Satellite Coordinates for G17-K24/Lower: Galaxy 17 Ku-band Xp 24 Slot Lower| 91.0 ° W Longitude | DL 12171.0 MHz | Vertical Polarity | QPSK/DVB-S | FEC 3/4 | SR 13.235 Mbps | DR 18.2954 MHz | HD 720p | Format MPEG2 | Chroma Level 4:2:0 | Audio EmbeddedInterview Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Questions? Contact michelle.z.handleman@nasa.gov or 301-286-0918. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/van-allen-probes](https://www.nasa.gov/van-allen-probes) Related pages

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    SVS Demo Reel 2020

    Feb. 17th, 2021

    This is the SVS Demo Reel submitted to SIGGRAPH 2021.Coming soon to our YouTube channel. Music Credit:"Always A Way" by Stefan Rodescu [SACEM], Yannick Kalfayan [SACEM], Universal Production Music Related pages

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    Heliophysics Sentinels 2022

    Nov. 22nd, 2022

    This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth, through the solar system, and concluding with a view of the Voyagers, just outside the heliopause. This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth. This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth out to lunar orbit. This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth out to the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1, positioned between the Sun and Earth. This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth, through to the inner solar system. There has been one significant change since the 2020 Heliophysics Fleet. SET has been decommissioned. As of Fall 2022, here's a tour of the NASA Heliophysics fleet from the near-Earth satellites out to the Voyagers beyond the heliopause.Excepting the Voyager missions, the satellite orbits are color coded for their observing program:Magenta: TIM (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere) observationsYellow: solar observations and imageryCyan: Geospace and magnetosphereViolet: Heliospheric observations Near-Earth Fleet:Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS pageTIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of Earth's atmosphere. SVS pageICON: Works with GOLD on studies of the ionosphere.AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS pageIRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph is designed to take high-resolution spectra and images of the region between the solar photosphere and solar atmosphere. SVS pageGeosynchronous Fleet:SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps the Sun under continuous observation at 16 megapixel resolution. SVS pageGOLD: Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk is a spectroscopic imager for studying the ionosphere.Geospace Fleet:Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. SVS pageMagnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS): This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS pageTHEMIS: This is a fleet of three satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. Two of the original five satellites were moved into lunar orbit to become THEMIS-ARTEMIS. SVS page IBEX: The Interstellar Boundary Explorer measures the flux of neutral atoms from the heliopause. SVS page Lunar Orbiting Fleet:THEMIS-ARTEMIS: Two of the THEMIS satellites were moved into lunar orbit to study the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the Moon. SVS page Sun-Earth Lagrange Point One Fleet:The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS pageACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. SVS pageWind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. SVS page Solar Orbiting Fleet:STEREO-A: The remaining STEREO spaceraft orbits the Sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. SVS pageParker Solar Probe: On an orbit that takes it closer to the Sun than any other mission. SVS pageSolar Orbiter: On an orbit that takes it to high solar latitudes. SVS page Interstellar Fleet:Voyager 1 & Voyager 2: The two Voyager spaceraft orbit originally performed flybys of the outer planets of the solar system but continued to operate. They are now the most distant monitors of the plasma in the space between the stars. At the time of this visualization, Voyager 2 has just crossed the heliopause.SVS page Related pages

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    Heliophysics Sentinels 2018

    Dec. 10th, 2018

    This movie presents the trajectories of the heliophysics fleet from close to Earth to out beyond the heliopause. The near-Earth, geosynchronous, and geospace missions. The fleet at the Earth-Sun L1 point. The inner solar orbiting fleet. The Voyagers at and beyond the heliopause. There have been few changes since the 2017 Earth-Orbiting Heliophysics Fleet. RHESSI, TWINS, and STEREO-B have been decommissioned, while GOLD and Parker Solar Probe have been added. As of fall 2018, here's a tour of the NASA Heliophysics fleet from the near-Earth satellites out to the Voyagers beyond the heliopause.The satellite orbits are color coded for their observing program:Magenta: TIM (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere) observationsYellow: solar observations and imageryCyan: Geospace and magnetosphereViolet: Heliospheric observations Near-Earth Fleet:Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS pageTIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of Earth's atmosphere. SVS pageSORCE: Monitors solar intensity across a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum.AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS pageVan Allen Probes: Two probes moving along the same orbit designed to study the impact of space weather on Earth's radiation belts. SVS pageIRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph is designed to take high-resolution spectra and images of the region between the solar photosphere and solar atmosphere. SVS pageGeosynchronous Fleet:SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps the Sun under continuous observation at 16 megapixel resolution. SVS pageGOLD: Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk is a spectroscopic imager for studying the ionosphere.Geospace Fleet:Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. SVS pageMagnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS): This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS pageTHEMIS: This is a fleet of three satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. Two of the original five satellites were moved into lunar orbit to become ARTEMIS. SVS page IBEX: The Interstellar Boundary Explorer measures the flux of neutral atoms from the heliopause. SVS page Lunar Orbiting Fleet:ARTEMIS: Two of the THEMIS satellites were moved into lunar orbit to study the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the Moon. SVS pageSun-Earth Lagrange Point One Fleet:The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS pageACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. SVS pageWind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. SVS page Solar Orbiting Fleet:STEREO-A: The remaining STEREO spaceraft orbits the Sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. SVS pageParker Solar Probe: On an orbit that takes it closer to the Sun than any other mission. SVS page Interstellar Fleet:Voyager 1 & Voyager 2: The two Voyager spaceraft orbit originally performed flybys of the outer planets of the solar system but continued to operate. They are now the most distant monitors of the plasma in the space between the stars. At the time of this visualization, Voyager 2 has just crossed the heliopause.SVS page Related pages

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    Heliophysics Sentinels 2020 (Forecast Version)

    March 1st, 2021

    This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth, out to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L1, and finally a view of the current missions operating in the inner solar system. In addition to the NASA missions used in research for space weather (see 2020 Heliophysics Fleet) there are additional missions operated by NOAA used for space weather forecasting. As of spring 2020, here's a tour of the NASA and NOAA Heliophysics fleets from the near-Earth satellites out to the inner solar system.The satellite orbits are color coded for their observing program:Magenta: TIM (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere) observationsYellow: solar observations and imageryCyan: Geospace and magnetosphereViolet: Heliospheric observations Near-Earth Fleet:Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS pageTIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of Earth's atmosphere. SVS pageICON: Works with GOLD on studies of the ionosphere.AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS pageIRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph is designed to take high-resolution spectra and images of the region between the solar photosphere and solar atmosphere. SVS pageSET: Space Environment Testbed exploring radiation-hardening technologiesGeosynchronous Fleet:GOES East & GOES West: The GOES satellites provide continuous imagery of Earth's western hemisphere and monitor the solar X-ray flux.SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps the Sun under continuous observation at 16 megapixel resolution. SVS pageGOLD: Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk is a spectroscopic imager for studying the ionosphere.Geospace Fleet:Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. SVS pageMagnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS): This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS pageTHEMIS: This is a fleet of three satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. Two of the original five satellites were moved into lunar orbit to become THEMIS-ARTEMIS. SVS page IBEX: The Interstellar Boundary Explorer measures the flux of neutral atoms from the heliopause. SVS pageLunar Orbiting Fleet:THEMIS-ARTEMIS: Two of the THEMIS satellites were moved into lunar orbit to study the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the Moon. SVS pageSun-Earth Lagrange Point One Fleet:The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.DSCOVR: Observes Earth and measures the solar wind.SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS pageACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. SVS pageWind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. SVS pageSolar Orbiting Fleet:STEREO-A: The remaining STEREO spaceraft orbits the Sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. SVS pageParker Solar Probe: On an orbit that takes it closer to the Sun than any other mission. SVS pageSolar Orbiter: On an orbit that takes it to high solar latitudes. SVS page For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/index.html) Related pages

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