2008 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| NASA'S THEMIS SATELLITE DISCOVERS WHAT POWERS DANCING NORTHERN LIGHTS (720p/59.94) | G08-HD104 | 8/24/08 | 8:25 | Researchers using a fleet of five NASA satellites have discovered that an explosion of magnetic energy a third of the way to the moon powers sudden brightenings and rapid movements of the Northern Lights, called substorms. Just as hail and tornadoes accompany the most severe thunderstorms, substorms accompany the most intense space storms - those that disrupt communications and cause power line transmission failures.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Reconnection Animation - THEMIS observations confirm for the first time that magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail triggers the onset of substorms. Substorms are the sudden violent eruption of space weather. This animation illustrates the discovery, which asserts substorm onset follows a particular pattern: a period of reconnection, followed by rapid auroral brightening and rapid expansion of the aurora toward the poles, culminating in a redistribution of the electrical currents flowing in near-Earth space.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (2): THEMIS Ground Stations (ASI) - A collection of ground-based All-Sky Imagers (ASI) captures the aurora brightening caused by a substorm. This network is an important part of the THEMIS mission and is considered the sixth satellite.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (3): Auroral Substorms From Space - NASA Polar spacecraft captures auroral substorms from space.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (4): THEMIS Launch and Deploy Animation - Animation of THEMIS launch and deploy.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (5): B-roll of Auroras From The Ground
Courtesy: SolarMax, Heliograph
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Space Science Gallery