NASA Space Weather Teaching Guide

8/2/2019 NASA Space Weather Teaching Guide

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National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

Space Weather

Teacher s Guid e

Grades 9 -1 4


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This problem book is designed to support a multi-year investigation of Earths magneticfield using NASAs THEMIS magnetometer network and resources, which can be foundat http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/ .

The activities were designed in partnership with the IMAGE satellites education program(http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry ) and the many activities developed for that mission inthe exploration of the magnetosphere.

Authors:Dr. Sten Odenwald - Director, IMAGE Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) ProgramDr. Laura Peticolas - co-Director, THEMIS E/PODr. Nahide Craig - Director, THEMIS E/PO

Teacher input and testing:Laura Barber, Cris DeWolf (author of Activity 4), Wendy Esch, Sean Estill,Wendell Gehman, Keith Little, Terry Parent (author of Activity 3), VictorTrautman, and Holly Wyllie

Scientist/Engineer input and testing:Dr. Vassilis Angelopoulos (THEMIS PI)Dr. Chris Russell (E/PO Science Advisor)

Please consult the extensive essays on space weather and Earths magnetosphere in theTHEMIS GEONS User Guide, which is the companion document to this problem book.
http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetryhttp://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetryhttp://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/


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Introduction:

This magnetism guide is one of three guides that provide students with the opportunity to build

on science concepts related to Earths magnetism and its changes, as detected by THEMIS

magnetometers located in schools across the U.S. The three guides have been used in

different types of classes from physical science and physics classes, to geology classes, to

astronomy classes. The THEMIS project helps to motivate the learning or to give an

application to the science introduced in many of these lessons. The three guides are

described in the following paragraphs.

Magnetism and Electromagnetismcontains a review of basic magnetism, similar to what

is encountered in most grade-level physical science texts. Students are introduced to magnets

and the concepts of polarity and magnetic lines of force. These materials are mostly used by

teachers presenting Earth and Physical Science courses in grades 6-9 and occasionally as alab at the end of high school physics classes.

Exploring Magnetism on Earthis the second of three activity guides, which are intended

to help students explore Earths magnetic field through a variety of hands-on activities. It

contains problems which examine Earth's changing magnetic field in time and space, and how

these changes can impact navigation on Earth's surface. Students use basic math skills to

interpret graphical information that displays polar wander and magnetic changes, and answer

questions about quantitative aspects of these changes. These activities have been classroom-tested in classrooms containing students with many different levels of proficiency in math and

science. The lessons have been used in geology and astronomy classes.

Space Weatheris the third guide in this sequence. It introduces students to Earth's

magnetic field and aurora in the context of the Sun and space weather. The guide covers the

Earths magnetosphere, time zones and Universal Time, the evolution of auroras, and space

weather forecasting using geomagnetic indices. These activities have also been classroom-

tested in classrooms containing students with many different levels of proficiency in math andscience. The lessons have been used in physics and astronomy classes.

A fourth and final guide is being developed with the goal that students can work directly with

the THEMIS magnetometer data. Look at the In the Classroom section of the THEMIS

Education and Public Outreach website for this up-and-coming teachers guide.

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Contents

Activity 9: The Sun-Earth Connection........................................5

A lecture and student reading to learn about the ways in which the Sunaffects Earths magnetic field

Activity 10: The Magnetosphere ............................................. 11

Students search for the basic terms, locations, and properties of Earthsmagnetic field in space.

Activity 11:A Review of Time Zone Mathematics .......................... 15

Students learn about time zones.

Activity 12:Universal Time................................................... 18

Students learn about Universal Time in the context of observing solarflares.

Activity 13: The Aurora: A Critical Look at Phenomenology ............... 21Students will study aurora pictures and learn the correct scientificterms for their various forms, and the physical basis for their evolution

Activity 14: Magnetic Storms ................................................ 29

The strength of Earths magnetic field can suddenly change over thecourse of minutes and hours. These magnetic storms were discovered in1741, and have been studied by scientists ever since.

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National Science Education Standards

Grade Level Key Standards KeyS- Suggested Grade Level M- Major emphasisE- Extended Grade Level m- Minor emphasis

A-G represent different areas in the National Science Education Standards as follows:

A. Science as InquiryB. Physical ScienceC. Life ScienceD. Earth and Space ScienceE. Science and TechnologyF. Science in Personal and Social PerspectivesG. History and Nature of Science

Activity 5-8 9-12 A B C D E F G Emphasis9 S E M M M Electricity and magnetism are two aspects of a single electromagnetic force, objects change the

motion only when a net force is applied, atoms interact with one another, the origin of the

universe remains one of the greatest questions in science, stars produce energy from nuclear

reactions, science as a human endeavor, nature of science, history of science

10 E S M M m m M Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations, design and conduct scientifinvestigations, electricity and magnetism are two aspects of a single electromagnetic force,

electromagnetic waves result when a charged object is accelerated or decelerated, science as ahuman endeavor

11, 12 S E M M M Electricity and magnetism are two aspects of a single electromagnetic force, objects change themotion only when a net force is applied, atoms interact with one another, the origin of the

universe remains one of the greatest questions in science, stars produce energy from nuclear

reactions, science as a human endeavor, nature of science, history of science

13 E S M m M m M Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations, design and conduct scientifinvestigations, the origin of the universe remains one of the greatest questions in science, stars

produce energy from nuclear reactions, earth systems have internal and external sources ofenergy, science as a human endeavor

14 E S M M m m M Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations, design and conduct scientifinvestigations, electricity and magnetism are two aspects of a single electromagnetic force,

electromagnetic waves result when a charged object is accelerated or decelerated, science as ahuman endeavor

Grades Science Content

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Procedure:

1. Use the Sol_6_8.pdf talk from Our Sun Our Earth CD-ROM. To locate thetalk, follow these directions:

Put the CD in the CD drive.

Display the CD files and directories.

Open the Making Sun-Earth Connections directory.

Open the EngCD directory.

Open the Sol_6_8.pdf file.2. Turn off sound in Sol_6_8.pdf by turning down volume on computer or projector.3. Follow script if needed.4. Hand out the IMPACT story, and for homework have the students write about

one aspect of the Sun-Earth Connection they learned from the talk and the story.Note: Double click on movies to make them play.

CME photo. Courtesy SOHO satellite

Activity 9 The Sun-Earth Connection

This activity is a lecture for students about the Sun and its affects on Earthsmagnetosphere and about the satellites scientists and engineers have put into space.This scripted talk is accompanied by graphics on a CD-ROM (in Adobe Acrobat Reader)provided by the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum. The content on this CD-ROM

can also be found on the web:http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/NewPresSplash.htm and the particulargraphics for this lesson can be found at:http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/presentations/Solarweb_6_8New1.pdf

Goals:1. Students will know that the Sun is a

dynamic and magnetic star.

Materials: Our Sun Our Earth CD-

ROM or pdf presentation fromWebsite above

Computer LCD projector

2. Students will know that coronal massejections are ejections of largeamounts of mass from the corona.

3. Students will know that the solar wind

comes from the Sun and travels outpast the planets in the solar system.

4. Students will know that Earth has amagnetic shield called themagnetosphere.

5. Students will know that auroras areconnected with Earths magnetosphere.

6. Students will know that coronal massejections interact with Earthsmagnetosphere and auroras areenhanced accordingly.

7. Students will know that the high-energy

particles from coronal mass ejectionscan be dangerous to astronauts andcan damage satellites.


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Script for talk:

1 We know that the Sun provides heat and light. In the last decades, we have discoveredthere are other types of energy coming from the Sun, and interacting with the spaceenvironment around Earth.

2 Scientists at NASA study the Earth system, how to improve air travel, ways to send

people into space and to the Moon, and the Sun-Earth space system.

3 Space technology helps NASA scientists discover things in space that have neverbefore been observed, measured, or understood.

4 Scientists study the Sun. The Sun is made up mostly of gas that is so hot thatelectrons have been stripped off the atoms. This leaves ions and electrons flyingaround. This ion-electron gas is known as plasma. Scientists know the Sun has layers,like an onion, or the layers in Earths atmosphere. This movie shows a made-upvisualization of how the inside of the Sun might look. The inner core of the Sun givesoff energy because of a process called fusion. This energy heats up one the middlelayers, the convection zone, causing the plasma to move outward, cool off, and movetoward the center again. The outermost layer of the Sun is called the coronaand itstretches far out into space.

5 The place where the Sun transitions from being transparent to opaque is called thesurface of the Sun, or the photosphere. This region is found below the coronaandabove the convection zone. On the surface of the Sun, there are spots calledsunspots! The movie on the left shows an image of magnetic fields on thephotosphere with black representing one magnetic pole, and white representing theother. This is one way scientists know that sunspots are magnetic. The right movieshows a representation of the chromosphere, the layer between the photosphere andthe corona.

6 Sunspots are quite large. In the middle of the slide graphic theres an image of asunspot with a cartoon of Earth to represent how big the sunspot was compared withEarth. Sunspots come and go, kind of like acne. But sunspots come and go in an 11year cycle. Every 11 years, there is a big outbreak of sunspots and then they graduallydisappear. The movie shows a drawing of magnetic field lines on the Suns surface.They get all tangled up over 11 years and they have to pop to release energy anduntangle. These tangled magnetic field lines produce sunspots.

7 Here are two movies created from real images of magnetic fields associated withsunspots that pop. These movies were taken by cameras on satellites out in spacebetween Earth and the Sun. When the popping is localized, as in these movies, and x-rays are primarily given off, scientists call it a solar flare.

8 Sometimes the popping is much bigger and ejects a bunch of the stuff, or mass, fromthe Corona out into space. What would you call this type of event that ejects massfrom the corona? Scientists call it a coronal mass ejection, or CME. In this movie youcan see an image of the corona because of a solar eclipse. Scientists put a disk infront of their camera to hide the Suns bright light so they can see the Corona. Thecamera is out in space, away from the sunlight scattering in Earths atmosphere. Thismovie shows days of the corona and lots of coronal mass ejections. Can you counthow many?

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9 We know about ultraviolet light because it is what gives us a suntan or burns our skin.The Sun generates this ultraviolet light and scientists put cameras in space to look at theSun in this color, or at this energy or wavelength. On the left is a movie showing the Sunin ultraviolet light over the course of a solar cycle. The chromosphere gives off ultravioletlight and you can see how that changes over the cycle. Bright spots are associated withsunspots on the photosphere. The Sun also gives off x-rays. Scientist have figured outways to photograph this wavelength as well. The top right image shows the Sun in x-raysthrough the solar cycle. The bottom images show the corona during 1) solar minimum,

when there are few sunspots, and 2) solar maximum, when there are many sunspots.

10 The Sun is constantly spewing out plasma that extends from the corona out into space,past all the planets in the solar system. This is called the solar wind. It is not like anywind we know of on Earth. There is only one particle to be found in a cubic centimeter andit is not a neutral particle, but a plasma particle, which means it is electrified. The movieon the right is a complicated computer simulation of the protective magnetic shield aroundEarth, called Earths magnetosphere. It flaps around in the solar wind because electrifiedgases interact with magnetic fields. It is similar to how a windsock or a flag movesbecause of atmospheric winds. However, if the solar wind were neutral like the winds onEarth, it would not affect Earths magnetosphere one bit.

11 Scientists are working on ways to use the energy of the solar wind to push on a space sailthat will study the solar system.

12 The magnetosphere is a complicated system. On the side facing the Sun, the dayside, itgets pushed by the solar wind. On the side away from the Sun, the nightside, it getspulled out into a long tail. Earths magnetosphere mostly deflects the solar wind. Thecusps are two funnel-like regions in the North and South where solar wind has access toEarths upper atmosphere. In these regions, solar wind can cause the atmosphere to lightupcreating two small spots of light around 100 km (60 miles) above Earths surface.These spots are very far north and very far south, near the magnetic poles, and usuallytoo dim for humans to see. The Van Allen Belts are also known as the radiation beltsbecause the plasma in this region moves so fast, and is so energetic, that it is veryhazardous radiation to satellites and humans in this region of space.

13 Sometimes coronal mass ejections, or CMEs for short, head toward Earth. Here arepictures of a prominence on the left that could have become a CME. And on the left is acartoon of how a CME stretches out into space and passes by Earth.

14 Here is a cartoon movie, or visualization, of the particles from a CME hitting EarthsMagnetosphere. There are always huge ovals of light around the magnetic poles knownas the Northern and Southern Lights, or aurora. These lights can be enhanced when aCME interacts with Earths magnetosphere and will move around, dancing and glowing inred, green, pink, and white. This cycle of changing aurora occurs in a period of about 30minutes to an hour and is known as a substorm. The THEMIS mission will study howsubstorms begin. In the movie shown here, we see one scenario where magnetic fieldscome together that are pointing in opposite directions. They are so stretched and get soclose that they can release the tension by reconnecting and snapping back towardEarth. When this happens, they take the plasma attached to them toward Earth and uptoward the North and South and cause more dynamic aurora. This aurora is often seencloser to the equator than the non-CME aurora and can be seen by people in moresouthern latitudes such as from Texas to Arizona to Oregon to Vermont.

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15 Here are some photographs of aurora taken from Earth (left) and taken from theSpace Shuttle by astronauts (right).

16 This movie shows the auroral oval glowing in ultraviolet light and colored indifferent colors just for fun and placed over a drawing of Earth and itscontinents. The ultraviolet aurora is taken by a camera on a satellite. Since oureyes dont see ultraviolet, the movie has to be colored for us to see it. These arenot the colors of the aurora.

17 Why do people care about CMEs hitting Earths atmosphere? Sometimes thisinteraction between the CME and Earths magnetosphere can accelerate plasmato such high speeds that satellites can be damaged. These satellites may be beingused to support phones or television or part of the global positioning satellites(GPS) that help us find our way when were lost. So when a CME hits, satellitephones, satellite TV and GPS may get knocked out of commission.

18 Very energetic particles accelerated by the CME in the solar wind are called solarenergetic particles(SEPs). They can damage cameras in space observing theSun. Here is a movie of a CME coming towards the satellite, which sits betweenthe Sun and Earth. The snow in the image is a SEP event hitting the camera.

These particles travel near the speed of light.

19 Solar energetic particles can also harm astronauts because they can provide alethal dose of radiation if the astronauts are not protected by Earths magneticfield, for example, if the space shuttle is flying under the cusp discussed earlier.

20 Some scientists believe fireballs, such as the one shown in the movie on the right,can be caused by CMEs interacting with Earths magnetosphere. Also, largeelectrical currents can be generated high in Earths upper atmosphere, at around100 km (60 miles). These currents can likewise cause currents to flow on Earthssurface. The currents on Earths surface can potentially flow up into a power plantsupplying electricity to an entire city and blow a fuse. Also plasma bubbles at this

altitude (100 km) can disrupt communication between satellites and the ground,such as communication for satellite phones, satellite television, and globalpositioning satellites (GPS) receivers.

21 The Sun powers weather in Earths atmosphere.

22 And the Sun powers weather in Earths magnetosphere and out in the solarsystem.

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The Sun-Earth ConnectionThe Sun is a fiery ball of gas that gets so hot that gas flies out from the Sun at very highspeeds. Many of the electrons in the Suns atoms have enough energy to actually leavethe atoms. These new particles are called ions. These ions and electrons are flowingoutward from the Sun, and together they are known as the solar wind. The ions and

electrons dance in the Sun's magnetic field. Scientists discovered that the solar windand its magnetic field flow together out past Mercury, past Earth, and continue out pastPluto. Because the magnetic field is threaded throughout the solar system, we call it theinterplanetary magnetic fieldthat is, the magnetic field found between (inter) theplanets (planetary).

When the solar wind travels with the interplanetary magnetic field, or IMF for short, thecharged particles and magnetic fields interact with Earths magnetic field. Earthsmagnetic field, as it stretches out in space, is known as its magnetosphere. The solarwind pushes on the side of the magnetosphere facing the Sun and pulls it out on theside facing away from the Sun. The pulling makes a long tail away from the Sun, andthus the magnetosphere looks like a wind-sock blowing in the wind. Electrical currents

flow in the magnetosphere and generate the lights in the sky known as the Northern andSouthern Lights. Together these lights are known as aurora.

Scientists have also noticed that the Sun goes through some pretty different cycles, justlike moody people who are calm and quiet some days, but on other days explode withanger. But of course the Sun doesn't have emotions to drive its cycles! Physicalprinciples, such as magnetic and electric forces, power its cycles. During the Sunsactive cycle, parts of the Sun will explode, sending out even more solar wind andmagnetic fields than is typical.

What happens to the solar wind and magnetic fields that the explosions send flying outinto space? Sometimes the explosive solar wind will flow by Earth, where we all could

potentially be vulnerable. Luckily Earth has a magnetic field and a thick layer ofatmosphere which protect all living creatures on Earth from the particles and radiationthat can come from such solar explosions. But when astronauts are up in space,sometimes the magnetic field isnt strong enough to protect them. If they are outsidetheir space vehicles, such as the space station, they need to hurriedly float back to itsprotection.

Scientists have named these explosions coronal mass ejections, or CMEs for short.When a CME interacts with Earths magnetosphere, the electrical currents in themagnetosphere grow stronger and the aurora glows brighter. Because currents createmagnetic fields, the changes in these electrical currents cause changes in magnetic dataon Earths surface. There are three main currents that cause magnetic changes

observed on the ground as changes in Earths magnetic field. 1) Currents in the day-litside of the ionosphere as a half-sphere around Earth about 100 km (60 miles) aboveEarths surface, where there are a significant number of charged particles: ions andelectrons. Aurora also causes an enhanced ionosphere at night in an oval aroundEarths magnetic poles, and thus enhanced currents in these regions. 2) There is acurrent around Earths equator at about 30,000 km altitude called the ring current. 3)And there are currents near midnight near the equator over 60,000 km altitude called thesubstorm current wedge. CMEs interacting with Earths magnetosphere can influenceall these currents. Currents that change rapidly, within seconds, are usually carried by awave known by the name of the man who discovered them through equations. Thesemagnetic waves are called Alfvn waves. The picture on the next page is a computersimulation of these waves.


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Alfvn Waves on magnetic field lines rendered as snakes at the Basic PlasmaScience Facility at UCLA (http://128.97.43.7/bapsf/pages/gallery.html ) which usescomputer modeling to investigate laboratory plasmas in controlled fusion research.Who says scientists dont have a sense of humor?

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http://128.97.43.7/bapsf/pages/gallery.htmlhttp://128.97.43.7/bapsf/pages/gallery.html


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Activity 10 - The MagnetosphereTeachers Guide:In order to discuss Earths magnetic field and its changes, we need a common vocabulary.Scientists recognize over two dozen distinct regions and processes occurring within themagnetosphere. Some are nearly permanent features, while others appear and disappearwithin minutes or hours. In this activity, students will visit a website and learn the mainfeatures of the magnetosphere and the functioning of the Sun-Earth system. Students shouldstart a lab book in which to keep notes about Earths magnetosphere, space weather, andmagnetometer data.

Procedure:

Students will identify the definitions for each term by reading the discoverypages from the IMAGE satellite. The collection of pages at:

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/IMAGEdisc.html

will provide summaries of each discovery, and definitions of the terms. Theaccompanying Teacher AnswerKey indicates the pages where the definitionscan be found.

By reading each discovery, students will learn about recent advancementsand see how the terms relate to each other. In all cases, the definitions areprovided at the bottom of each page.

Goals:

1. Students will learnabout the basicelements of the Sun-Earth system.

2. Students will start alab notebook in

which they willcollect the basicdefinitions and datathat characterize theSun-Earth system.

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http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/IMAGEdisc.htmlhttp://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/IMAGEdisc.html


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Students Name _________________________ Date _______

The goal of this activity is for you to become familiar with the main terms thatscientists use to discuss Earths magnetic field. Review the information at thefollowing website, which contains discoveries made by the IMAGE satellite, and thedefinitions for magnetospheric terms:

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/IMAGEdisc.html

Start a lab book. In your lab book, provide definitions to the following terms, andlocate them on the accompanying figure. You will be referring back to the entries inthis book as your main source of basic information in the weeks to come.

Magnetosphere

Bow Shock

Magnetopause

Magnetotail

Cusp

Plasma Sheet

Auroral Oval

Ring Current

Solar Wind

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Earths Magnetic Field in Space

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Teachers Answer Key

Magnetosphere - Answer at the link 2001- Discovery 14.Bow Shock - Answer at the link 2001 Discovery 4Magnetopause - Answer at the link 2003 Discovery 3Magnetotail - Answer at the link 2001 Discovery 1

Cusp Answer at the link2000 Discovery 2Plasma Sheet - Answer at the link 2001 Discovery 8Auroral Oval - Answer at the link 2001 Discovery 7Ring Current Answer at the link 2001 Discovery 10Solar Wind - Answer at link 2003 Discovery 8

A GOOGLE image search (click on images under the Google page header) using thekey word magnetosphere will call up many diagrams that look like the figure below.Note, the plasmasphere and ring current, as well as the inner van Allen Belts, are

situated in the same spatial locations, but differ significantly in the energy (in Volts) ofthe particles involved. Plasmasphere (10-100 Volts), Ring Current (1,000 to 100,000Volts), van Allen Belts (1 million to 50 million Volts).

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The world is a big place! In fact it is so enormous that we, the citizens of the world,cant all use the same time on our clocks to measure the passage of day and night.Lets see how this works for the continental United States.

We have six time zones that divide the country from east to west. As you can see

on the map below, there are four time zones from the East Coast (yellow) to thePacific Coast (red). We also have the Alaskan (purple) and Hawaiian (gold) timezones. Crossing into each time zone from East to West means that you have tomove your clock back one hour. That means, for example, that on the East Coast itcould be 3:00 PM (or 15:00) but in the Central Time Zone (green) it is one hourearlier, making it 2:00 PM (or 14:00). If you traveled to the Mountain Time Zone(blue) it would be 1:00 PM (or 13:00), and in the Pacific time zone (red) it would be12:00 noon. In Alaska it would be 11:00 AM and in Hawaii it would be 10:00AM!

Without taking into account these time zone changes, suppose the sun set at 6:00PM (or 18:00) on the East Coast. If you were living in Nevada, the sun would still be

high up in the sky! It makes sense that sunset happens at the same clock time foreach person around 6:00 PM. To do this, we all have to adopt the time zones ideaand actually change our watches as we travel across the country. In allcalculations, please use the '24-hour' clock to make calculations easier. ( i.e3:00 PM = 15:00, 9:45 AM = 09:45 etc)

Activity 11 - A Review of Time Zone Mathematics

Answer Key: 1) 07:50 2) 2h 50m 3) 09:00 4) 16:00 5) 06:356 15:10


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Calculating time changes

Here are some solved problems with time arithmetic.

23:25 23 hrs 21hrs = 2 hours- 21:15 25min 15min = 10 minutes-------------------2 hours 10 minutes This is the difference in time between the two clock readings

21:15 This problem asks you to add 4 hours to the clock time 21:15+ 4 hours---------------------

01: 15 the next day

02:00 Eastern Time This problem asks you to calculate what clock time it is- 3 hours in the Pacific Time Zone 3 hours earlier.-----------------------------------

23:00 Pacific Time the previous day.

15:15 Subtract 1 hour 55 minutes from 15:15 (or 3:15 PM)- 1hour 55 minutes because 15 is less than 55, borrow 1 hour from 15:00 and add-------------------------------- 60 + 15 to get 75. Then the problem becomes:

13:20 14 75- 1 55

--------------13: 20

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1) 15:15- 7:25----------------

2) 09:15

- 06:25

--------------

3) 23:25

+ 9:35---------------

4) 04:25

+ 11:35

---------------

5) 18:35+ 12:00

--------------

In the column below, createfive of your own timeproblems, solve them, and

share them with the class!

6) 03:25

- 12:15

---------------

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Activity 12 - Universal Time

Scientists use the Universal Time reference to talk about data that is taken aroundthe globe. In the winter, when it is 6:00 AM in Oregon, it is 7:00 AM in Montana,9:00 AM in Pennsylvania, and 13:00 Universal Time. Universal time is loosely thetime kept on the Greenwich meridian (longitude zero) in London, England. UT timesare almost always given in terms of a 24-hour clock. Thus, 14:42 is 2:42 PM, and21:17 is 9:17 PM.

Procedure:

1. Students will read the material provided on theirwork sheet and note the local times for the solarflare, and the geographic locations of theobservers.

Goals:

1. Students will translate theirlocal time to times in otherzones around the world.

2. They will identify which time zone where eachobserver is located.

3. They will read the diagram to determine thenumber of hours to add (+) or subtract (-) todetermine the Universal Time (UT) of the solar

flare.

2. Students will work with the

concept of Universal Time.4. They will answer questions about another event

and whether it was observed by a scientist onbreak.

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One of the most basic ideas that astronomers have to work with is the idea of thetime zone. When one astronomer observes a phenomenon from one place onEarth, it is often important to be able to communicate when that phenomenonoccurred to another astronomer located somewhere else on Earth. To make thisas easy as possible, we adopt the time of the phenomenon as it would have beenobserved in Greenwich England called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or

Universal Time (UT). This requires converting the astronomers local time to UT.

Note to Teachers: Time zone math is a challenge for most people, including seasonedtravelers, because intuitively it makes no sense why times are earlier or later than whatthe clock on your wall indicate, depending on which direction East to West you travel.

For students that are rusty with doing time calculations, review with them that Earthrotates from west to east. Show them a globe, and then have a student hold a small ball(ping pong ball) a few meters from the globe. Explore the relationship between sun angleand local time by exploring the following questions:

1 - Where on Earth is the sun-ball directly overhead.

2 - What time it would be on Earth from where the sun-ball is directly over head.(12 noon).3 - Without moving the ball, ask the students where in the sky the sun-ball would be asviewed from countries located to the east of the above noon longitude. Answer- The ballwould be lower in the western sky. That means that the sun is setting and that local timesare LATER than noon as you travel eastward. The reverse is true for a traveler movingwestward from the noon longitude of the sun-ball.

Have your students do Activity 10 first, and then continue on with Activity 11.


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The above diagram shows the 24 time zones around the world. If you live in New York and want to callsomeone in San Francisco, you have to remember that the local time in San Francisco (PacificStandard Time) is 3 hours BEHIND New York Time (Eastern Standard Time). By counting the timezones between the locations and keeping track of ahead or behind you, you can figure out thecorrect local times anywhere on the planet. Suppose an astronomer in Texas spots a solar flare at 6:00AM Central Standard Time near sunrise. Meanwhile, an astronomer in India spots the same solar flareat 17:00 India Time near sunset. Answer the following questions.

1) How can exactly the same event be seen at two different times on Earth?

2) What time would an astronomer in West Africa have seen the same solar flare according to her localtime?

3) What time in Universal Time (UT) did the solar flare occur?

4) Would an astronomer living in Central Australia have seen the flare? How about an astronomer livingin Alaska?

5) Suppose a solar flare happened at 10:31 UT. What time would the event have happened in

California according to Pacific Standard Time?

6) A satellite registers a major solar explosion that lasts from 15:15 to 16:26 UT. A solar scientistmonitoring the satellite data decided to go grab a cup of coffee between 7:00 AM and 7:45 AM PacificStandard Time.a) How long did the explosion last?b) Did the scientist know about the flare before she left for coffee?c) How much of the flare event did the scientist get to see in the satellite data as it happened?d) Should the scientist have gone for coffee?


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Answer Key:

1) How can exactly the same event be seen at two different times on Earth?Answer Because the surface of Earth has different time zones.

2) What time would an astronomer in West Africa have seen the same solar flare according toher local time? Answer From the diagram and the location of West Africa, the local timewould be 11:00 AM.

3) What time in Universal time did the solar flare occur? Answer Knowing that UniversalTime is Greenwich Mean Time at the Prime Meridian, the flare occurred at 12:00 UT.

4) Would an astronomer living in Central Australia have seen the flare? How about anastronomer living in Alaska? Answer Neither would have seen it because the sun hadalready set (Australia) or had not yet risen (Alaska).

5) Suppose a solar flare happened at 10:31 UT. What time would the event have happened inCalifornia according to Pacific Standard Time? Answer By the diagram, PST is 8 hoursbehind UT so 10:31 UT 8hrs = 2:31 AM PST. This is well before sunrise, so it wouldnt havebeen seen.

6) A satellite registers a major solar explosion that lasts from 15:15 to 16:26 UT. A solarscientist monitoring the satellite data decided to go for a coffee between 7:00 AM and 7:45 AMPacific Standard Time.a) How long did the explosion last? Answer 16:26 15:15 UT = 1hour and 11 minutes.b) Did the scientist know about the flare before she left for coffee? Answer: He or she left for

coffee at 7:00 AM PST which is 7:00 + 8hrs = 15:00 UT so she didnt know about the solarexplosion, which happened 15 minutes after she left.

c) How much of the flare event did the scientist get to see in the satellite data as ithappened? Answer: When she returned to the satellite station, the time was 7:45 AM PST+ 8hrs = 15:45 UT. The explosion ended at 16:26 UT, so the scientist got to see 16:26 PM

15:45 PM = 41 minutes of the last part of the explosion.d) Should the scientist have gone for coffee? Answer. Yes, of course! Because if he or she

had been smart, she would have made sure that her data was being recorded forplayback, just the way you program your VHS or DVD-recorder to record favorite programsyou have to miss at regular broadcast time. Also, no scientist using satellite data everrelies on on-the-spot analysis. Scientists always record the satellite data so they can studyit in detail later. Still, we can guess that after a long night at the satellite terminal, thisscientist would have loved to have been there to see it happen in real-time!!

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Activity 13: The Aurora: A critical look at phenomenology

Auroras have been sighted for thousands of years. Over time, many different terms havebeen used to describe them. For a glimpse at aurora terminology, have a look at thenewspaper archive at http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.html, which is a chronology ofsightings and newspaper accounts since about 1850, each provided in PDF format.

Auroral forms do not always change in a random way, but often evolve over time as thedisplay begins, reaches a climax, and fades away. Specific terms have been created todescribe these forms. When placed along a timeline of observations, it becomes a muchclearer way to identify reoccurring patterns.

Procedure:Goals

1. Examine the articles found in the1) Students will learn the names of the

basic auroral forms.www.solarstorms.org newspaper archiveand make a list of all the terms thatobservers used to describe them. Keep

track of how these terms changed over theyears spanned by the newspapers.

2) Students will learn that auroralshapes evolve over time andsometimes follow a more-or-less well-organized pattern of changes knownas an auroral substorm.

2. Read the accompanying article aboutaurora that describes the physical reasonsbehind the auroral forms and theirchanges over time.3) Students will apply their knowledge

of auroral forms and substorms bysorting a collection of images onlineinto a sequence of changes.

3. Visit a website that displays pictures ofauroral forms, organize them into asequence of changes, and answerquestions related to these displays.

4. Read two accounts of auroralobservations and answer questionsrelated to the timing of the observations.

Auroras from space make the polarregions of Earth look like they areencircled by a ring of light. The AuroralOval has been photographed bysatellites such as IMAGE and Polar.

This photograph, taken by the IMAGEsatellite shows the beginning of anauroral substorm (top two panels)followed by substorm brightening, andpoleward expansion (lower two panels)of the auroral oval.

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http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.htmlhttp://www.solarstorms.org/http://www.solarstorms.org/http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.html


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A brief explanation of the Aurora:

About 90% of the time, the light from the aurora comes from 100-250 km altitude.Electrons from space follow Earths magnetic field lines down to Earths upperatmosphere near the magnetic poles. These electrons are sped up by electricalforces and move very fast. When the electrons collide with the gas in the upperatmosphere, mostly N2, O2, and O, they excite the gas. When the gas relaxes, it

gives off light. This is the light of the aurora we can see. This light is found in anoval band around Earths magnetic poles. Sometimes this oval moves and changesshape in a specific pattern, known as an auroral substorm.

Aurora and city lightswere photographed bythe US Air Force DMSPsatellite on November 6,2003, with a map drawnover the image in yellow.Note the sharp southernedge, defining theequatorward edge of theauroral oval as it passesover Montana, the GreatLakes, and NewEngland. Observers asfar south as Georgiasaw a spectaculardisplay looking north tothe aurora, located at an

elevation of 100 km.

The space shuttle crewphotographed aurorafrom above Earth. Theheight of the aurorareaching above 100 kmin altitude is plainlyseen in this oblique

view with the starsshining above Earthssurface. Also note thecolor changes fromgreen-blue at loweraltitudes, to reddish athighest altitudes.

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Basic Shapes:

Arches and arcs are long ribbons of light extendingfrom horizon to horizon without structure, often fromthe east to west. Sometimes these arcs turn in formscalled folds. Arcs are often green, sometimes withred above the green and sometimes with purplebelow the green. Arcs mostly remain motionless inthe sky and are always present, usually at very high

latitudes (such as far north). This is the type of auroraone can usually see during the quiet phase of theaurora. During the growth phase of an auroralsubstorm, this arc slowly drifts sideways in thedirection of the equator. For an observer in the north,this would mean the arc drifts slowly towards thesouth. From an image, it is hard to tell if aurora is in aquiet phase of the aurora, or a growth phase of asubstorm. If it is very bright, it is more likely to be inthe growth phase.

Bands are arcs with structure. When seen on thehorizon, bands often have rays and are calledcurtains or drapes. An auroral arc curling in its length-wise direction from horizon to horizon causes thesecurtains. These curls can be seen from below.Sometimes shooting rays will quickly flow down thecurtain to lower altitudes, and trains of these raysmay flow eastwards or westwards along the curtain.Other times, bands will rapidly move across the sky.Bands are often green, sometimes with red above thegreen and sometimes with purple below the green.These forms make their appearance during thesubstorm expansion phase, also known as thesubstorm break-up phase. The transition from aslowly moving arc in the growth phase to quicklymoving aurora in the form of curtains and rays isknown as substorm onset.

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Auroras appear as coronas during the expansion

phase of a substorm whenever an active, rayedcurtain passes over the observers zenith. Geometricperspective effects make it look as though the auroralrays are coming from a vanishing point and flowingto the horizon in all directions. The top of an auroralcurtain may be over 250 km above the ground, andthe rays are only a few kilometers wide, giving aspectacular visual effect.


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Diffuse glows are the most common at the endof an auroral display, during the substormrecovery phase. At high latitudes, the displaysare usually greenish. At lower latitudes duringintense storms, red diffuse aurora are commonlyseen. Diffuse auroras are often hard to observewith ones eyes because they are very faint.

Above images courtesy Jan Curtis

(http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Curtis/aurora/aurora.html)

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Evolution :

For Northern Hemisphere observers, an auroral substorm display begins with theappearance of an auroral arc above the northern horizon or in the zenith. Over the course of30 minutes during substorm growth phase, this arc will grow in brightness exceeding that ofthe full moon, with a white or pale green color. It will also drift across the sky towards thezenith or towards the equator. The auroral arc often will resolve itself into folds of lightextending from the east horizon to the west horizon in the northern sky. From the ground, the

substorm onsetbegins suddenly within seconds. This is followed by the substorm expansionphase(also known as break-up phase). In the expansion phase, the auroral arcs or bandsbreak into many moving bands, which dance wildly across the sky both to the north andsouth. Within minutes, rays of light will start streaming down the developing curtains, whichoften surge westwards. From space, the expansion or break-up phase is seen as athickening of the auroral oval along its north-south extent. The Auroral Ovals substormbrightening region begins to expand westward, dissolving into numerous individualstructures, which we see from the ground as individual curtains. As a curtain passes directlyoverhead, the rays flowing down the curtain create an auroral corona, which from a centralpoint look like a meteor shower raining down the sky an effect of perspective. Within 30minutes, the activity begins to slow and fade, and retreat northwards during the recoveryphase. From space, the recovery phase is seen as a thick oval, often with two bright regions

to the north and south. From the ground, pulsating aurora will be visible, which are largepatches of diffuse aurora that brighten and fade with periods of seconds. The aurora slowlybecomes a diffuse glow. An uninterrupted recovery phase lasts several hours. At any timeduring this sequence, the aurora may erupt into another auroral display if a new magneticsubstorm event is triggered by disturbances in Earths magnetotail region.

Sounds:

Observers from many countries claim, rather steadfastly, that they sometimes hear soundsfrom aurora, such as crackling or swooshing. This subject is an interesting one for studentsto explore. Are people just imagining the sound because auroras LOOK so much like fires inthe sky? For decades, scientists have looked into this subject, but have not been able to

capture any sound on tape.

One thing we do know is that direct observations show that auroras never occur closer thanabout 70 km above the ground, where the air is nearly a vacuum. There is no gas to carrypressure waves that could make our ears sense sound. This has caused some scientists tolook into indirect sympathetic causes. Some of these are psychological. Others may involvepowerful electrical currents flowing in the ground that cause electric crackling discharges onsharp objects near the observer (pine needles, etc). These currents are well-known to existat the latitudes where sounds are reported.


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Student Name _________________________ Date _______

The Aurora: October 29-30th, 2003.

In this exercise, you will examine a number of aurora photographs taken around the world byamateur photographers on October 29th thand 30 , 2003. These observers were located at anumber of different locations and latitudes. We will use photographs assembled from thephotographs at the October, 2003 spaceweather.com aurora gallery and located at:

http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/gallery_auroras.html

We will be studying the major Great Aurora that was viewed on October 29-30, 2003.

1. Create a table with 15 rows, and four columns.2. Label the columns as follows: location, latitude, description, substorm phase3. Visit the above website and fill in the information in Columns 1 (location) and 3

(description) from the information provided in each pictures caption. For example, in Row1, use the aurora photographed by Lionel Bernardi. In Column 1, enter Troms, Norway.In Column 3 enter a description of the aurora, including color. Use the standard termsdescribed in the photo gallery provided by your teacher. For example, this first row auroracould be described as purple, white, and yellow corona.

4. From your descriptions in Column 3, assume the aurora was part of an auroral substormand estimate the phase of the auroral substorm. Write this is Column 4 (substormphase) using the descriptions provided by your teacher (quiet, growth, expansion,recovery phases). For example, Row 1 would be an expansion phase aurora.

5. When you are finished with the web gallery for pictures taken on October 29 and October30, in Column 2 enter the latitudes of the locations given in Column 1 by using a map.Or, use a web page that gives the latitudes for a given location. Latitude degrees needonly be integers, not decimals. For example, instead of writing 35.47 degrees just roundit to 35 degrees. For this first aurora in Row 1, you would write 69 degrees sinceTroms, Norway is located at 69 degrees.

6. When complete, answer the following questions:

Question 1 Geographically, for which latitudes were the most diffuse aurora seen byobservers?

Question 2 What was the lowest latitude from which observers reported aurora?

Question 3 What was the lowest latitude from which expansion-phase aurora were seen?

Question 4 What was the most common expansion phase features that were seen?

Question 5 Where would you have to live in the USA to see expansion phase features?

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Answer Key

Question 1 Geographically, for which latitudes were the most diffuse aurora seen byobservers? Answer: Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Colorado all saw diffuseaurora. The latitudes vary from 39 to 41 degrees north.

Question 2 What was the lowest latitude from which observers reported aurora?Answer: Elkins, West Virginia at a latitude of 39 degrees north.

Question 3 What was the lowest latitude from which expansion phase aurora wereseen? Answer: For this storm, the lowest latitude where discrete auroral features wereobserved were from La Otto, Indiana at 41 degrees north. Expansion-phase auroras wereseen from 41 degrees north to 69 degrees north.

Question 4 What were the most common expansion phase features that were seen?Answer: Bands with rays.

Question 5 Where would you have to live in the USA to see expansion phase features?Answer: From this activity, it seems it would be necessary to live above about 41 degreesnorth. However, since the magnetic pole is not located at the geographic pole, it would bemore accurate to find the magnetic latitudes of all of these types of aurora and answer the

questions.

Going Further

Have your students find the geographic longitude of all the locations, as well as thegeographic latitudes. Then have them use a converter to obtain the magneticlatitudes forall of these locations using the geographic latitude, longitude to magnetic latitude, longitudeconverter on the webpage:

http://swdcwww.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/igrf/gggm/

Have them then answer the same questions using magnetic latitude instead of geographiclatitude and discuss any differences they find.

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Name ________________________________ Date: ____________

On August 28, 1859 a major solar storm caused spectacular aurora seen all over the globe. Itwas reported in all the major newspapers, poems were written about it, and famous artistspainted its shapes and forms. It also caused severe problems with telegraph networks at thetime, which lasted for many hours world-wide. Although scientists gave detailed reports of the

changing forms of this vivid display, many ordinary citizens offered their own impressions of thisevent too. Two of these descriptions as seen from two different locations are written below. Readthese descriptions and respond to the following questions and instructions.

Galveston, Texas: London, England.

August 28 as early as twilight closed, the northern

sky was reddish, and at times lighter than other

portions of the heavens. At 7:30 PM a few

streamers showed themselves. Soon the whole sky

from Ursa Major to the zodiac in the east was

occupied by the streams or spiral columns that rose

from the horizon. Spread over the same extent was

an exquisite roseate tint which faded and returned.Stately columns of light reaching up about 45

degrees above the horizon moved westward. There

were frequent flashes of lightning along the whole

extent of the aurora. At 9:00 PM the whole of the

streaking had faded leaving only a sort of twilight

over the northern sky.

At 0:15 AM on August 28 th the auroral light in the

north assumed the form of a luminous arch, similar to

daybreak, and in the southwest there was an intense

glare of red covering a very large extent of the sky. At

00:20 AM streamers appeared; at 00:25 AM the

streamers rose to the zenith and were tinged with

crimson at their summits. At 00:45 AM frequent

coruscations appeared in the aurora. At 01:20 AM thearch which had partially faded began to reform and the

body of the light was very strong but not bright enough

to read newspaper print. At 1:30 AM the light had

begun to fade. By 2:00 AM the aurora was very

indistinct.

When organizing observations from different places around the world, a common problemscientists face is that observers like to note when things happened by their local time.Scientists simplify these accounts by converting them into Universal Time, which is the localtime in Greenwich, England, also called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). To make time

calculations easier, UT is expressed in the 24-hour clock format so that 11:00 AM is written as11:00 UT but times after noon such as 1:00 PM are written as 13:00 UT. 10:00 PM is writtenas 22:00 UT. Since London is very close to Greenwich, the times mentioned in the Londonaccount above are already in Universal Time and only need to be converted to the 24-hourformat. For Galveston, Texas, the time is 5 hours behind UT so to get the equivalent UT forGalveston, first convert the Galveston times to the 24-hour format, then add 5 hours. SeeActivity 11 for more details.

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Questions and Instructions:

1) From these two descriptions, extract the specific points of each narrative. Change the

times to Universal Time while you do that. What are the stories similarities?

2) From the sequences of events in each description, create a storyline for the auroradisplay that fits the most details.

3) Rewrite the timeline using the auroral substorm phases. Would you call this an auroralsubstorm?

4) - Why was the aurora observed to reach closer to zenith in London than in Galveston?


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1) From these two descriptions, extract the specific points of each narrative. Change the times toUniversal time while doing this. What are the stories similarities? Answer: Here are the mainpoints in each story with the similarities highlighted.

Answer Key:

Story 1:1. Display began at end of twilight with faint reddish light in north.2. 7:30 PM (00:00 UT) streamers began to appear3. Streamers of spiral columns filled eastern sky

4. Faint rose-colored light covered same eastern sky, fading and returning5. Columns of light reached 45 degrees to zenith, and moved westwards6. Frequent flashes of light along the whole aurora7. 9:00 PM (02:00 UT), the aurora faded and left a twilight glow in north.

Story 2:1. 00:15 AM (00:15 UT) - Luminous arch appeared in northern sky2. 00:16 AM (00:16 UT) - Intense glare of red in southwest3. 00:20 AM (00:20 UT) - Streamers appeared4. 00:25 AM (00:25 UT) - Streamers reached zenith and were crimson at highest points5. 00:45 AM (00:45 UT) - Frequent coruscations appeared in aurora6. 01:20 AM (01:20 UT) - Arch begins to fade and reform

7. 01:30 AM (01:30 UT) - Aurora begins to fade.8. 02:00 AM (02:00 UT) - Aurora very indistinct.

Similarities: Auroral light appeared in northern sky. Streamers appeared soon afterwards. Thestreamers expanded in the sky until they were nearly overhead from Galveston, and overhead inLondon. The aurora shapes showed activity in the form of flashes and movement (coruscations).Soon after this active phase, the aurora faded. The auroral display started and ended at about thesame Universal Time at each location.

2) From the sequences of events in each description, create a storyline for the aurora display thatfits the most details. Answer: Each student might group the events differently because theeyewitness accounts are not detailed enough. Because this aurora is seen in the Northern

Hemisphere, it is properly called the Aurora Borealis. Here is one way to organize the timeline:

The aurora borealis started with a faint wash of reddish light in the north. A brilliant arch of lightformed. Five minutes later, streamers began to appear which were crimson at their highest pointsabove the horizon. Then, coruscations (waves) began to appear in the brightening red glow of theaurora with the streamers filling the entire eastern sky. The columns of light and streamers began tomove westwards, and frequent flashes of light were seen along the aurora as the luminous arch ofbegan to fade and reform. After an hour and fifteen minutes, the aurora began to fade away, leavingbehind a twilight glow that persisted for another half-hour.

3) Rewrite the timeline using the auroral substorm phases. Would you call this an auroralsubstorm? Answer: Yes, this could be called a substorm.

The growth phase began with a brilliant arch of light. Substorm onset occurred at 00:20 UT withstreamers and active aurora as the expansion phase started. Recovery phase started with the archfading and reforming.

4) Why was the aurora observed to reach closer to zenith in London than in Galveston? Answer-Because the aurora is a polar phenomenon and London is at a higher latitude than Galveston. Thatmeans that the aurora will be seen higher in the northern sky from London than from Galveston.


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Procedure:1 - Students visit the above website.

2 Students select one of the plotfiles and open it in the browser.

3 From the archive of Kp, students

note the maximum Kp reached eachday. This will give the number of daysthat magnetic storminess reached thefollowing levels out of 90 days:

Calm storm conditions: Kp = 4

Minor storm conditions: Kp = 5Moderate storm conditions: Kp = 6Strong storm conditions: Kp = 7Severe storm conditions: Kp = 8Extreme storm conditions: Kp = 9

4 Students create a histogram ofthe tallies for at least one monthsworth of Kp plots.

5 - At the conclusion of the assignment, consult the NOAA Space Weather site to compare.http://www.sec.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/#GeomagneticStorms

Going Further Have the students enter the data into a computer datasheet so they can perform

additional calculations on the data and plot the data using the computer program. Every 3 days print out the most recent Kp index from NOAAs website

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html and post it on the wall in the classroom.Post other relevant spaceweather data from NASAs Student Observation Network,http://son.nasa.gov/tass/ such as sunspot, radio wave data, or magnetometer data,underneath the Kp data. Have students compare datasets to notice the connectionbetween the Sun and Earths Magnetosphere.

Activity 14 Magnetic Storms

In this exercise, students will become familiar with a very common indicator of magneticstorminess: the Kp index. This index is assembled every three hours based on the level ofthe disturbances detected in dozens of magnetometer installations located at latitudes northof 50 degrees. It is a 9-point scale in which 9 is the most severe, largest disturbance, and1 is the least severe, smallest disturbance. Typically, there are only one or two Kp=9storms every year. Kp index plots, like the one below, can be obtained for this activity from

the NOAA archive at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ftpdir/warehouse . For this lesson, we havecreated a website using 2005 data from the NOAA archive, which can be found here:

http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/classroom_kp2005.html

Goals:1. Students will become familiar with a very

common indicator of magnetic storminesscalled the Kp index.

2. Students will analyze plots of the Kpindex and create a histogram of the

number of days in the year that magneticstorms exceed a specific level on the Kpscale.


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Students Name ________________________ Date _______

Below is a plot of the Kp index for a storm obtained from the NOAA data archive andput on the following website:http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/classroom_kp2005.html Scientists use the Kp index to identify the strength of magnetic storms. The bar graphshows the Kp index from January 6, 7, and 8, 2005. On January 7 th there was a strongmagnetic storm with Kp=7. In this activity, you will examine similar plots from an on-linedata archive and determine how common it is to find storms at various levels of the Kpindex, beginning January 1, 2005. See the example below for an explanation forhow to tall .

From the Kp website above, tally themaximum Kp reached each day. Thiswill give you the number of days thatmagnetic storminess reached thefollowing levels out of 90 days:

Calm Conditions: Kp = 4Minor storm conditions: Kp = 5Moderate storm conditions: Kp = 6Strong storm conditions: Kp = 7

Severe storm conditions: Kp = 8Extreme storm conditions: Kp = 9

Kp Index Number of Daysin January

Number of Daysin February

Number of Daysin

March

9

8

76

5

4

Example: The plot shows one bar for every 3-hour interval starting at midnight on January 6.There are 8 bars for each day. The tally for the above plot would indicate for January 6, no counts.For January 7, one count for Kp=7, and for January 8, one count for Kp=6.

Question 1: From your 90-day sample, what percentage of days had either

Severe or Extreme magnetic storm conditions?

Question 2: From your answer to Question 1, what is the chance (in percent)that your magnetometer will see at least a moderate magnetic storm tomorrow?

Question 3: What percentage of days are considered stormy during thisperiod?

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Answer Key

Kp Index Number of daysin January

Number of daysin February

Number of daysin March

9

8 |

7 ||||

6 ||| | |5 |||||| ||| |||||

4 |||||||||| |||||| ||||||||

Note: To simplify the calculations, only tally the maximum Kp reached in a givenday. For example, in the Kp plot above, we count one day with Kp=7, whichoccurred on January 7, and one day with Kp=4 on January 8.

Question 1: From your 90-day sample, what percentage of days had eitherSevere or Extreme magnetic storm conditions?Answer: There was only one day (in January) that reached at least Kp= 8Severe Storm, so the percentage is (1/90)x100% = 1% of the time.

Question 2: From your answer to Question 1, what is the chance (in percent)that your magnetometer will see at least a moderate magnetic stormtomorrow?Answer There were 10 days where Kp was at 6 or higher, so the chance is

(10/90)x100% = 11%.

Question 3: What percentage of days are considered stormy during thisperiod?Answer Stormy days are days where Kp exceeds 4. There were 24 days inJanuary, 10 in February, and 14 in March for a total of 48 days, so thepercentage of days is (48/90)x100% = 53%. During this period of time, aboutevery other day had stormy conditions.

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How is the Kp index actually determined?

Geomagnetic disturbances can be monitored by ground-based magnetic observatoriescalled magnetometers. The global Kpindex is obtained as the mean value of thedisturbance levels in the two horizontal magnetic field components Bx and By, observed at13 selected, subauroral stations . The name Kporiginates from "planetarische Kennziffer"(planetary index). Kpwas introduced as a magnetic index by physicist J. Bartels in 1949and has been derived since then at the Institut fr Geophysik of Gttingen University,

Germany.

The following definition of Kvariations has been given by Siebert (1971):

K variations are all irregular disturbances of the geomagnetic field caused by solarparticle radiation within the 3-h interval concerned. All other regular and irregulardisturbances are non K variations. Geomagnetic activity is the occurrence of Kvariations.

To calculate the Kp index from the K index, heres what you have to do:

1. Local disturbance levels which lead to a value for the K index are determined bymeasuring the range (difference between the highest and lowest values) during three-hourly time intervals for the most disturbed horizontal magnetic field component.

2. The quiet-day variation pattern has to be removed from the magnetometer data, asomewhat subjective procedure. The range is then converted into a local K index forthe Niemegk Magnetic Observatory near Potsdam, taking the values 0 to 9 according toa quasi-logarithmic scale, which is station-specific; this is done in an attempt tonormalize the frequency of occurrence of the different sizes of disturbances becausesmaller disturbances are so common compared with larger disturbances.

3. According to the geographic and geomagnetic coordinates of the observatories, eachobservatory still has an annual cycle of daily variations. Using statistical methods J.Bartles generated conversion tables to eliminate these effects. By applying theconversion tables, a standardized Ksindex for each of the 13 selected observatories is

determined. In contrast to the Kvalues, the Ks index is expressed in a scale of thirds(28 values): 0o, 0+, 1-, 1o, 1+, 2-, 2o, 2+, ... , 8o, 8+, 9-, 9o

4. The main purpose of the standardized index Ks is to provide a basis for the globalgeomagnetic Kpindex which is the average of a number of the Ks index from the "Kpstations", originally 13. The Ks data for the two stations Brorfelde and Lov arecombined, as are the data from Eyrewell and Canberra. With these four stationscombined into two stations, the total number of stations used for the Kpindex is 11.

The official Kp indices are available since 1932 at

http://swdcwww.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kp/

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Center for Science Education

Space Sciences Laboratory

University of California, Berkeley

7 Gauss Way, MC 7450

Berkeley, CA 94720-7450

http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu

www.nasa.gov

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Documents

NASA Space Weather Teaching Guide