Space Weather

A mass image from the COR2, HI-1 and HI-2 cameras from a spacecraft that travels ahead of the Earth. The pixel intensity displays the locations of highest line of sight mass measurements. The cone overplotted on the figure displays the relevant part of the CME that propagates over the Earth.

Different types of satellite orbits in relation to the Earth and the Earth’s radiation belts. Most telecommunications satellites are in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), GNSS satellites such as Galileo and GPS are in medium Earth orbit (MEO) and the international space station is in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The detector stack of CRaTER consists of six silicon solid-state detectors (D) in three pairs. The six-decade logarithmic color scale indicates density of points per pixel per unit time in plot of events’ energy deposit in D4 vs. that in D6. Tracks due to GCR protons and alphas coming from above and for protons coming up from the lunar surface, and a train of peaks along the diagonal due to relativistic heavier GCR ions, are labeled. “Wings” due to particles striking one detector and missing the other, but triggering it remotely via a delta ray, are also labeled.

(a) Three-dimensional lemniscate representation of a CME. (b) Rendering the object without shading leads to a (c) two-dimensional outline which is then overlaid on coronagraph images and matched with observed difference images of an emerging CME.

(left) An all-sky image in 6300 Å emission taken from the Cima Ekar observatory in Asiago, Italy, on 26 September 2011. Zenith is at the center and the cardinal directions are marked. To the north appears the diffuse aurora just above the horizon, with a stable auroral red (SAR) arc above it. Trees and observatory domes obscure low elevation angle views at some azimuths. The bright feature to the south is Jupiter. (right) The northern portion of the image displayed on an azimuth and elevation angle coordinate system (see text).

The solar wind (solar wind), the extension of the corona, is an outflow of magnetized plasmas. The ionosphere is the innermost region of the magnetosphere and envelopes the Earth's neutral atmosphere. The coordinates are shown, with the Earth at the origin, x = 0. Original unannotated artwork due to and courtesy of Y. Kamide.

(a) Electrons (and ions) will gyrate around the magnetic field and will bounce along the field between magnetic mirror points which are determined by the local magnetic field strength and the particle's pitch angle, α. (b) Charged particles drift azimuthally and the motion around the Earth and between the mirror points defines a surface of motion called a “drift shell.” The magnetic field and drift shells change and are distorted by solar and geomagnetic activity.