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TIMED Observes Atmosphere's Response to Recent Solar Storms
by Johns Hopkins APL
NASA's TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and
Dynamics) spacecraft recently observed our atmosphere's response to a
series of strong solar storms, providing important new information on
the final link in the Sun-Earth Connection (SEC) chain of physical
processes connecting the Sun and Earth.
"Several NASA spacecraft measured this strong activity coming from
the Sun. Now TIMED provides the critical link between what happened on the Sun
and Earth's response," says Dr. Sam Yee, TIMED project scientist, from
the spacecraft's operations center at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and leader of the mission's
science team.
"TIMED allows us to observe the global reaction of our upper
atmosphere to solar activity," says Dr. Mary Mellott, TIMED program scientist from
NASA Headquarters in Washington. "One of the current puzzles for the
Sun-Earth Connection community is determining why some solar activity has
significant geospace impact and some does not. Being able to monitor the impact
so well with TIMED should allow the scientific community to make significant
progress toward solving this SEC mystery."
Preliminary TIMED data will be featured in a special session at the Spring
2002 American Geophysical Union meeting, May 31, in Washington, D.C.
Since TIMED's science mission began in January 2002, science team
members say it has made great strides in helping them learn more about one of
Earth's least understood atmospheric regions -- the Mesosphere and
Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere -- a gateway between Earth's environment and
space. TIMED is the first of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes missions to
globally study the influences of the Sun and humans on the MLTI region,
located approximately 40-110 miles (60-180 kilometers) above the surface.
"TIMED's study of short-term events, such as the recent solar storms,
will help us gain a better understanding of the dynamics of this gateway
region," says Dr. Yee. "But our main goal is to understand the
region's overall climate through a comprehensive set of global measurements
we're collecting using TIMED's 4-instrument suite. With the core data we've
already collected, we've taken the first step in assessing the
region's global characteristics and seasonal variations, information that will
help us establish a baseline for future studies."
Space weather in Earth's upper atmospheric regions can change as
suddenly as our weather patterns on the ground. It can affect satellite
communications and orbital tracking, spacecraft lifetimes and the
reentry of piloted vehicles. "When a change occurs in one region of our
atmosphere, it affects other regions," Dr. Yee says. "It's important that we
better understand how this gateway region responds to various solar inputs,
which affect our atmosphere's overall energy balance."
The Solar Terrestrial Probes Program Office at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., oversees the TIMED mission for the Office of
Space Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md., built and now
operates the spacecraft, leads the project's science effort and
manages the mission's Science Data Center for NASA.
For more information about TIMED, visit .
For more information about APL, visit
.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Media Contact: Kristi Marren (JHU/APL)
(240) 228-6268
Kristi.Marren@jhuapl.edu, or
Nancy Neal (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
(301) 286-0039
ngneal@pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov
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