NASA Puts IT to Work Tracking Solar Storms (
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UPDATED: NASA's THEMIS project combines IT with satellite technology and cutting-edge research to give scientists new insights into what causes the undulating lines of glowing color known as the northern lights. The project will also give scientists a clearer understanding of how massive streams of charged particles from the sun can affect the performance of communications satellites and power grids on Earth.NASA has brought together a space weather satellite network, global
communications and plenty of IT muscle to gain new insight into what causes the
undulating streams of color known as the northern lights.
While the project is paying dividends in terms of pure scientific research, it
will also have practical value here on Earth by potentially giving scientists a
way to predict solar storms that trigger the eerily beautiful phenomenon.
NASA's
THEMIS project (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During
Substorms) is dedicated to studying the high atmosphere. NASA scientists
revealed July 24 in an article
in Science Magazine that they now know why the northern lights dance the
way they do.
The lights, also called the aurora borealis, are caused by immensely
powerful bursts of charged particles from the sun's surface, which can also
damage satellites in space while overloading and possibly shutting down electric
power grids on Earth.
Damage to satellites in turn could affect telephone communications, degrade
the ability of television networks to transmit signals to local stations or
homes and knock out the GPS systems people
use to find their way in unfamiliar territory.
Based on the recent data they have gathered, THEMIS researchers said, they believe
that during aurora borealis events, "stressed" lines in the Earth's
magnetic fields suddenly snap to a new shape, like a stretched rubber band that
was suddenly released, in a process called magnetic reconnection. Researchers
are still trying to find out why this happens and why it affects radio waves;
that's the main thrust of the ongoing project.
THEMIS is counting on this new information to help them improve substorm models
and forecasts, so that governments and companies can be forewarned about
possible interruptions.
"Aurora are the visual
representation of disturbances [substorms] in the atmosphere," David
Sibeck, THEMIS project scientist at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center,
told me. "As they capture and store energy from the solar wind, the
Earth's magnetic field lines stretch far out into space.
"Magnetic reconnection releases the energy stored within these stretched
magnetic field lines, flinging charged particles back toward the Earth's
atmosphere. They create halos of shimmering aurora circling the northern and
southern poles."
Auroras
are certainly beautiful to see, but more important is this: These
changes in the ionosphere can have a profound effect, especially when it comes
to the satellite communications we all depend upon. Disruption of HF radio
communications, obviously, can be a serious problem for airline pilots all over
the world.
Has a connection between the aurora and communications disruptions been proven?
If so, how does it affect the radio waves?
"At times of large storms, auroras can be seen as far south as Florida,
and within them there are many substorms," THEMIS project supervisor
Vassilis Angelopoulos, a faculty member at UCLA, told me. "These are known
to affect communications and to affect transmission of shortwave radio as well
as GPS lock quality, because the ionosphere
that reflects or transmits those waves is altered severely by the space
particle radiation."
IT Infrastructure 
