Wide-Field UV Imaging of Earth's Dynamic Exosphere by NASA's

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Wide-Field UV Imaging of Earth's Dynamic Exosphere by NASA's Boston University College of Arts & Sciences Center for Space Physics 2020—2021 SPACE PHYSICS SEMINAR SERIES Wide-field UV imaging of Earth’s dynamic exosphere by NASA’s GLIDE mission One of the most significant gaps in our knowledge of Earth’s near-space environment concerns its outermost neutral atmosphere, a region known as the exosphere. The exosphere plays a critical role in mediating Earth’s response to solar forcing and in permanent atmospheric evolution through the gravitational escape of its constituent hydrogen atoms. Reliable characterization of its spatial structure and temporal variability is notoriously difficult, owing mainly to the challenges of global and routine sensing over its vast extent, which ranges from ~500 kilometers above Earth’s surface to more than 150,000 km, about halfway to lunar orbit. I will begin my talk with a brief overview of the successes and limitations of the many space-based attempts to investigate the exosphere to date – on platforms ranging from large NASA missions to Cubesats, from vantages spanning low earth orbit to deep space, and using various sensing techniques, including direct mass spectrometry, ultraviolet spectroscopy, and optical tomography. I will end by introducing a new mission that is ideally suited for exospheric sensing: GLIDE (Global Lyman-alpha Imager of the Dynamic Exosphere). GLIDE was recently selected for development as a NASA Solar Terrestrial Probes Science Mission of Opportunity, which will be deployed to the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrangian equilibrium point via rideshare with the IMAP launch in 2025. From this distant vantage, GLIDE will obtain wide-field, high-resolution, and high-cadence images of ultraviolet exospheric emission and significantly advance our understanding of the nature and origin of exospheric structure and variability. Thursday, March 11th Lara Waldrop 4:00-5:00 p.m. University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign See website for Zoom information .
Recommended publications
  • Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses
    Climate change and human health RISKS AND RESPONSES Editors A.J. McMichael The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia D.H. Campbell-Lendrum London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom C.F. Corvalán World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland K.L. Ebi World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome, Italy A.K. Githeko Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya J.D. Scheraga US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA A. Woodward University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION GENEVA 2003 WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Climate change and human health : risks and responses / editors : A. J. McMichael . [et al.] 1.Climate 2.Greenhouse effect 3.Natural disasters 4.Disease transmission 5.Ultraviolet rays—adverse effects 6.Risk assessment I.McMichael, Anthony J. ISBN 92 4 156248 X (NLM classification: WA 30) ©World Health Organization 2003 All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from Marketing and Dis- semination, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel: +41 22 791 2476; fax: +41 22 791 4857; email: [email protected]). Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications—whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution—should be addressed to Publications, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; email: [email protected]). The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
    [Show full text]
  • Potential European Contributions to Europa Lander Mission
    The Europa Initiative for ESA’s M5 mission Report to OPAG Michel Blanc, Geraint Jones, Olga Prieto-Ballesteros, Veerle Sterken, Javier Gomez-Elvira, David Mimoun, Adam Masters, Sascha Kempf, Luciano Iess, John Cooper, Zita Martins, Ralph Lorenz, Jérémie lasue, Nicolas André, Bruce Bills, Gael Choblet, Geoff Collins, Philippe Garnier, Kevin Hand, Paul Hartogh, Krishan Khurana, Andrea Longobardo, Katrin Stephan, Federico Tosi, Steve Vance, Tim van Hoolst, Roland Wagner, Frances Westall, Martin Wolverk, William Desprats, Ryan Russell, Georges Balmino, Julien Laurent-Varin and the Europa Initiative team August 11th, 2016 1 EI WORKING SCHEME Europa M5 for an ESA contribution to the Europa Lander mission Initiative Penetrator Contribution to Cubesat? Orbiter or… NASA lander A – GLOBAL GEOPHYSICSMagnetospheric interactions CHARACTERIZE EUROPA AS A COMPLEX DYNAMICAL SYSTEM B – ExosphereOF COUPLED LAYERS(neutrals, dust, plumes) FROM CORE TO PLASMA ENVELOPE THROUGH OCEAN AND CRYOSPHERE dimension RESPONDING TO E – Geophysics (internalJUPITER SYSTEM FORCING: TIDAL, MAGNETOSPHERICstructure, incl. Characterization of the ocean) themes ASTROBIOLOGY CONTRIBUTE TO NASA’s LANDER SCIENCE Science AND PROVIDE AN ADDITIONAL ELEMENT (AWL) As resources permit « Spacecraft » dimension EI contribution to EUROPA LanDer : SubmitteD LOI’s Joint Europa Mission (Blanc/Prieto-Ballesteros) • Baseline: Carrier-Orbiter + lander joint NASA/ESA mission: – P1a: Carrier-Orbiter provided by ESA, operated by NASA; – P1b: Alternative option: Carrier-Orbiter provided and operated by NASA; science platform (+ sub-systems?) provided by ESA – Science platform open to both ESA member states and NASA • Option 1: Augmented surface science: Astrobiology Wet Laboratory (AWL) provided by ESA + Member States to enhance landing site exploration. • Option 2: Augmented orbital science - cubesat released from carrier.
    [Show full text]
  • ESA Strategy for Science at the Moon
    ESA UNCLASSIFIED - Releasable to the Public ESA Strategy for Science at the Moon ESA UNCLASSIFIED - Releasable to the Public EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A new era of space exploration is beginning, with multiple international and private sector actors engaged and with the Moon as its cornerstone. This renaissance in lunar exploration will offer new opportunities for science across a multitude of disciplines from planetary geology to astronomy and astrobiology whilst preparing the knowledge humanity will need to explore further into the Solar System. Recent missions and new analyses of samples retrieved during Apollo have transformed our understanding of the Moon and the science that can be performed there. We now understand the scientific importance of further exploration of the Moon to understand the origins and evolution of Earth and the cosmic context of life’s emergence on Earth and our future in space. ESA’s priorities for scientific activities at the Moon in the next ten years are: • Analysis of new and diverse samples from the Moon. • Detection and characterisation of polar water ice and other lunar volatiles. • Deployment of geophysical instruments and the build up a global geophysical network. • Identification and characterisation of potential resources for future exploration. • Deployment long wavelength radio astronomy receivers on the lunar far side. • Characterisation of the dynamic dust, charge and plasma environment. • Characterisation of biological sensitivity to the lunar environment. ESA UNCLASSIFIED - Releasable to the Public
    [Show full text]
  • A Future Mars Environment for Science and Exploration
    Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop 2017 (LPI Contrib. No. 1989) 8250.pdf A FUTURE MARS ENVIRONMENT FOR SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION. J. L. Green1, J. Hol- lingsworth2, D. Brain3, V. Airapetian4, A. Glocer4, A. Pulkkinen4, C. Dong5 and R. Bamford6 (1NASA HQ, 2ARC, 3U of Colorado, 4GSFC, 5Princeton University, 6Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) Introduction: Today, Mars is an arid and cold world of existing simulation tools that reproduce the physics with a very thin atmosphere that has significant frozen of the processes that model today’s Martian climate. A and underground water resources. The thin atmosphere series of simulations can be used to assess how best to both prevents liquid water from residing permanently largely stop the solar wind stripping of the Martian on its surface and makes it difficult to land missions atmosphere and allow the atmosphere to come to a new since it is not thick enough to completely facilitate a equilibrium. soft landing. In its past, under the influence of a signif- Models hosted at the Coordinated Community icant greenhouse effect, Mars may have had a signifi- Modeling Center (CCMC) are used to simulate a mag- cant water ocean covering perhaps 30% of the northern netic shield, and an artificial magnetosphere, for Mars hemisphere. When Mars lost its protective magneto- by generating a magnetic dipole field at the Mars L1 sphere, three or more billion years ago, the solar wind Lagrange point within an average solar wind environ- was allowed to directly ravish its atmosphere.[1] The ment. The magnetic field will be increased until the lack of a magnetic field, its relatively small mass, and resulting magnetotail of the artificial magnetosphere its atmospheric photochemistry, all would have con- encompasses the entire planet as shown in Figure 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Thermosphere? Why Is It So Hot? Atmosphere Model and Thermosphere 5
    UNIT 6, LESSON 1: EARTH LAYERS & ATMOSPHERE LET’S BUILD OUR EARTH AND THE ATMOSPHERE 1 & 2 Where is earth’s crust? What is the difference between the 1. Read/annotate the oceanic and continental crust? paragraph(s) Crust and Mantle Where is the earth’s mantle? What is a plate? What part of the 2. Answer the questions mantle is below the plates? that go with the 3 Where is the earth’s core? How is the core similar to the mantle? paragraph(s) Core 4 & 5 Where is the troposphere? What are you likely to find there? Name at least 3 things. 3. Show Mrs. Stoddard Troposphere and Stratosphere your answers Where is the stratosphere? Why would the air be warm in the 4. If you get it correct, get stratosphere? Where is the mesosphere? Why do meteors burn in this layer? a piece of your 6 & 7 Mesosphere Where is the thermosphere? Why is it so hot? atmosphere model And Thermosphere 5. Repeat until your 8 Where is the exosphere? Why do some experts ignore the exosphere and think the thermosphere is the outermost layer of Exosphere model is finished! the earth’s atmosphere? CHECK YOUR MODEL! Exosphere Thermosphere Mesosphere Stratosphere Troposphere Core Name Class Period Mantle Crust HOW DID WE DO ON THE ATMOSPHERE MODEL? LET’S SET UP OUR JOURNALS! Earth’s Layers and Atmosphere 1:301:291:281:271:261:251:241:231:221:211:201:191:181:171:161:151:141:131:121:111:101:091:081:071:061:051:041:031:021:011:000:590:580:570:560:550:540:530:520:510:500:490:480:470:460:450:440:430:420:410:400:390:380:370:360:350:340:330:320:310:300:290:280:270:260:250:240:230:220:210:200:190:180:170:160:150:140:130:120:110:100:090:080:070:060:050:040:030:020:01End
    [Show full text]
  • Human Adaptation and Safety in Space
    SICSA SPACE ARCHITECTURE SEMINAR LECTURE SERIES PART II : HUMAN ADAPTATION AND SAFETY IN SPACE www.sicsa.uh.edu LARRY BELL, SASAKAWA INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SPACE ARCHITECTURE (SICSA) GERALD D.HINES COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, HOUSTON, TX The Sasakawa International Center for SICSA routinely presents its publications, Space Architecture (SICSA), an research and design results and other organization attached to the University of information materials on its website Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of (www.sicsa.uh.edu). This is done as a free Architecture, offers advanced courses service to other interested institutions and that address a broad range of space individuals throughout the world who share our systems research and design topics. In interests. 2003 SICSA and the college initiated Earth’s first MS-Space Architecture This report is offered in a PowerPoint format with degree program, an interdisciplinary 30 the dedicated intent to be useful for academic, credit hour curriculum that is open to corporate and professional organizations who participants from many fields. Some wish to present it in group forums. The document students attend part-time while holding is the second in a series of seminar lectures that professional employment positions at SICSA has prepared as information material for NASA, affiliated aerospace corporations its own academic applications. We hope that and other companies, while others these materials will also be valuable for others complete their coursework more rapidly who share our
    [Show full text]
  • ESA Space Weather STUDY Alcatel Consortium
    ESA Space Weather STUDY Alcatel Consortium SPACE Weather Parameters WP 2100 Version V2.2 1 Aout 2001 C. Lathuillere, J. Lilensten, M. Menvielle With the contributions of T. Amari, A. Aylward, D. Boscher, P. Cargill and S.M. Radicella 1 2 1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................ 5 2 THE MODELS............................................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 THE SUN 6 2.1.1 Reconstruction and study of the active region static structures 7 2.1.2 Evolution of the magnetic configurations 9 2.2 THE INTERPLANETARY MEDIUM 11 2.3 THE MAGNETOSPHERE 13 2.3.1 Global magnetosphere modelling 14 2.3.2 Specific models 16 2.4 THE IONOSPHERE-THERMOSPHERE SYSTEM 20 2.4.1 Empirical and semi-empirical Models 21 2.4.2 Physics-based models 23 2.4.3 Ionospheric profilers 23 2.4.4 Convection electric field and auroral precipitation models 25 2.4.5 EUV/UV models for aeronomy 26 2.5 METEOROIDS AND SPACE DEBRIS 27 2.5.1 Space debris models 27 2.5.2 Meteoroids models 29 3 THE PARAMETERS ................................................................................................................................ 31 3.1 THE SUN 35 3.2 THE INTERPLANETARY MEDIUM 35 3.3 THE MAGNETOSPHERE 35 3.3.1 The radiation belts 36 3.4 THE IONOSPHERE-THERMOSPHERE SYSTEM 36 4 THE OBSERVATIONS ...........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Ionizing Radiation in Earth's Atmosphere and in Space Near Earth May 2011 6
    Federal Aviation Administration DOT/FAA/AM-11/9 Office of Aerospace Medicine Washington, DC 20591 Ionizing Radiation in Earth’s Atmosphere and in Space Near Earth Wallace Friedberg Kyle Copeland Civil Aerospace Medical Institute Federal Aviation Administration Oklahoma City, OK 73125 May 2011 Final Report OK-11-0024-JAH NOTICE This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for the contents thereof. ___________ This publication and all Office of Aerospace Medicine technical reports are available in full-text from the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute’s publications Web site: www.faa.gov/library/reports/medical/oamtechreports Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. DOT/FAA/AM-11/9 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Ionizing Radiation in Earth's Atmosphere and in Space Near Earth May 2011 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Friedberg W, Copeland K 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute P.O. Box 25082 11. Contract or Grant No. Oklahoma City, OK 73125 12. Sponsoring Agency name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Office of Aerospace Medicine Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20591 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 15. Supplemental Notes 16. Abstract The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute of the FAA is charged with identifying health hazards in air travel and in commercial human space travel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Atmosphere
    ST The Atmosphere 1. a) What is the main gas found in the atmosphere, and nitrogen b) what are its roles? Makes oxygen less explosive by lowering its concentration Part of the nitrogen cycle where its atoms are incorporated into proteins, DNA of plants and animals 2. a) Why is the second most common gas also important to life, and Oxygen is used in cellular respiration which releases energy from food molecules. b) where did it come from? Most of the oxygen comes from the algae living in marine biomes 3. a) Identify the gas whose percentage can vary from <1 to almost 5, and water vapour b) which biomes’ atmospheres have the most, and tropical, ocean c) which have the least? Desert , tundra 4. a) What is atmospheric pressure and, it’s a force of air per square meter caused by the weight of the air above a certain area b) mention two factors that could make it change. It is influenced by temperature(an increase will lower air’s density, make it rise and lower the pressure) and altitude(as air thins out on mountain tops, pressure drops. There’s less air weighing down.) 5. Use the following terms to answer the following: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere a) The layer responsible for our weather troposhere b) The layer containing the protective ozone layer stratosphere c) It is found an altitude of 50-80 km; has noctilucent clouds mesosphere d) Unlike its neighbouring zone, the troposphere, here temperature increases with increasing altitude e) stratosphere f) Where satellites are found exosphere g) Where most meteors burn up; Northern lights occur here mesosphere; thermosphere 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture
    The Vibe of the Exiles: Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture Feature Article Graham St John Griffith University (Australia) Abstract This article offers detailed comment on thevibe of the exiles, a socio-sonic aesthetic infused with the sensibility of the exile, of compatriotism in expatriation, a characteristic of psychedelic electronica from Goatrance to psytrance and beyond (i.e. psyculture). The commentary focuses on an emancipatory artifice which sees participants in the psyculture continuum adopt the figure of the alien in transpersonal and utopian projects. Decaled with the cosmic liminality of space exploration, alien encounter and abduction repurposed from science fiction, psychedelic event-culture cultivates posthumanist pretentions resembling Afrofuturist sensibilities that are identified with, appropriated and reassembled by participants. Offering a range of examples, among them Israeli psychedelic artists bent on entering another world, the article explores the interface of psyculture and Afrofuturism. Sharing a theme central to cosmic jazz, funk, rock, dub, electro, hip-hop and techno, from the earliest productions, Israeli and otherwise, Goatrance, assumed an off-world trajectory, and a concomitant celebration of difference, a potent otherness signified by the alien encounter, where contact and abduction become driving narratives for increasingly popular social aesthetics. Exploring the different orbits from which mystics and ecstatics transmit visions of another world, the article, then, focuses on the socio- sonic aesthetics of the dance floor, that orgiastic domain in which a multitude of “freedoms” are performed, mutant utopias propagated, and alien identities danced into being. Keywords: alien-ation; psyculture; Afrofuturism; posthumanism; psytrance; exiles; aliens; vibe Graham St John is a cultural anthropologist and researcher of electronic dance music cultures and festivals.
    [Show full text]
  • Anatomy of the Lunar Water Exosphere
    50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132) 2547.pdf ANATOMY OF THE LUNAR WATER EXOSPHERE. D. M. Hurley1, P. Prem1, M. Benna2, R. R. Vondrak2, W. M. Farrell2, A. R. Hendrix3, P. G. Lucey4, 1Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel MD 20723, USA ([email protected]), 2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 20771, USA, 3Planetary Science Institute, Boulder CO, USA, 4University of Hawaii, Manoa HI, USA. Introduction: Does water migrate across the lu- These simulations demonstrate that the equatorial nar surface and accumulate in cold traps in lunar polar night side of the Moon is a special location where the regions? There are multiple data sets that support one dominant component is the source from meteoroids. side or the other; however, there are no observations In situ measurements of exospheric density there that are universally accepted as conclusive proof or would constrain that source. In contrast, the polar disproof. This presentation conveys these observa- region and dayside have multiple components. tions and associated modeling. We discuss the present During the Earth’s magnetotail passages, the solar interpretations with regard to exospheric water migra- wind source is temporarily shut off, while the meteor- tion, implications for ongoing migration as a source of oid source and the migrating exosphere should re- volatiles to lunar cold traps, and important measure- main. Dayside measurements during a magnetotail ments that will solve this problem. passage constrain the magnitude of the migrating exo- The Lunar Water Exosphere: Because the lunar sphere through comparison to the nightside exosphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Create an Atmosphere Collage Activity
    UAMN Virtual Family Day: Amazing Earth Atmosphere Collage Explore the layers of the atmosphere by making a collage! Earth's atmosphere is a jacket of gases that surround our planet. The atmosphere protects us from the sun’s radiation, keeps Earth warm, and gives us oxygen to breathe. It makes life on Earth possible. Materials Needed: Paper, scissors, glue or tape, crayons or markers, atmosphere printable (or draw your own), other craft supplies (yarn, tissue paper, paint, cotton balls, ribbons, etc. You can use whatever supplies you have!) Instructions: Step 1: Print or trace the atmosphere template on the next page, or draw your own. Step 2: Decorate the Earth and each layer of the atmosphere. Try using a different material for each layer! Step 3: Add items like airplanes, clouds, the ozone layer, meteorites, satellites, or the aurora. Be creative! Look at the What’s in the Atmosphere? information sheet to find out what happens in each layer. Think and Discuss: What are the unique features of each layer? How does each layer of the atmosphere help life survive on Earth? Why is it important to study the atmosphere? What do YOU want to know about the atmosphere? UAMN Virtual Family Day: Amazing Earth Atmosphere Collage Printable (Not to scale) UAMN Virtual Family Day: Amazing Earth What’s in the Atmosphere? Earth's atmosphere is a jacket of gases that surround our planet. It keeps us warm, gives us oxygen to breathe, protects us from the sun's radiation, and helps to form weather patterns. It makes life on Earth possible.
    [Show full text]