In my previous blog, I highlighted that public engagement needs to go beyond traditional approaches such as lectures, since these tend to only attract audiences who are already highly interested in science. However, our science is relevant to (and funded by) everyone, so we have a duty to engage beyond simply this “scientific echo chamber”. But how do you even approach attempting this? It seems li ...[Read More]
Filmmakers get creative with the sounds of satellite data
One of the major motivations behind research into solar-terrestrial physics is the potential consequences of space weather on our technologically dependent society. Given this risk, recognised by many governments around the world, it is a little concerning that a sizable fraction of the public have never even heard of the term “space weather” – for example a recent public dialogue in the UK showed ...[Read More]
New auroral dunes discovered through citizen science
The region of the Earth’s atmosphere lying at altitudes between about 80 and 120 km, corresponding to the mesosphere–lower thermosphere–ionosphere (MLTI), is often referred to as the “ignorosphere”, because its observation is so challenging that only a handful of measurements of its composition, temperature and other physical parameters have been obtained over the last few decades. It is, however, ...[Read More]
Chasing solar storms as an early career scientist
Hello! My name is Erika Palmerio and I am a newly qualified Dr in space physics from the University of Helsinki, Finland. In this blog post I will talk about my PhD research and my future career plans. The title of my PhD dissertation is “Magnetic structure and geoeffectiveness of coronal mass ejections”. Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are huge and spectacular clouds of magnetic field and plasma ...[Read More]
New insights to the north-south asymmetries of auroral features
Aurora Borealis above the EISCAT Svalbard Radar. Credit: Jone Peter Reistad
Recent research on the simultaneous displays of aurora in both hemispheres have lead to new knowledge of how large-scale asymmetries in the global magnetic field configuration can arise and be mitigated. This new understanding is contrary to what has been the consensus in the field, and was recently highlighted in a press release from the American Geophysical Union, followed by attention from nume ...[Read More]
Web-based Tools for Forecasting Solar Particle Events and Flares
The effect of particles in the Bastille day event. Credit: http://sidc.be/news/233/welcome.html
The presence of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) poses a serious health risk to humans in space, can result in increased radiation doses for high-latitude aircraft flights and constitutes a serious hazard for the micro-electronics and other hardware elements of satellites, aircraft and launchers. These groups of end users need reliable forecasts of possible enhancements in the radiation flux level ...[Read More]
FOXSI: The NASA mission that combines rockets, flares, and X-rays
For decades, high-energy aspects of the Sun have been studied using indirect imaging and spectroscopy in hard X-rays (HXR) by the pioneering RHESSI spacecraft. However, advanced understanding of small-scale energy releases and particle acceleration in the outermost layer of the Sun require better sensitivity and dynamic range, which can be achieved by using direct focusing X-ray optics. Almost six ...[Read More]
EGU for Early Career Scientists
Austria International Center, Vienna. Image credit: EGU/Stephanie McClellan
This months post is written by the ST Divisions Early Career Scientist representative, Theresa Rexer. Are you ready for the EGU general assembly 2019? Got your abstract ready and submitted? No, what? Too early you say? No funds? As your Early Career Scientist Representative, let me tell you why now is the perfect time to start planning your trip to Vienna in April next year. Especially if you are ...[Read More]
A close-up journey to the Sun: The Parker Solar Probe Mission
Artist’s concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
Almost two months ago, in August 12, 2018 Parker Solar Probe (PSP) launched by NASA on a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is a long-awaited mission from the Heliospheric community. The first to explore the Sun within distances of ~0.167 AU (or 25 million kilometers) at its perihelia. Its ancestors were the successful Helios -A and -B spacecraft, a pair of probes launched in ...[Read More]
Cosmogenic Radionuclides – The quest of studying the solar activity of thousands of years
Figure 1: Sketch of the processes involved in order to model the atmospheric production of the cosmogenic radionuclides. Courtesy K. Herbst
Thanks to the invention of the Neutron Monitor in 1948 and multiple spacecraft which monitor the cosmic ray environment since 1970’s we now have a constant record of the solar activity over almost 70 years. Information prior to this space era, however, are rare and take us back in time only to the late 1930s, when ionization chambers have been introduced. This of course allows us only a narr ...[Read More]