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By NASA
Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 9 min read
The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Fall 2024
On September 18, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared the first images of the Western Hemisphere from the GOES-19 satellite, its newest geostationary satellite launched on June 25, 2024 onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Previously known as GOES-U, the satellite was renamed GOES-19 upon reaching geostationary orbit on July 7, 2024. GOES-19 orbits about 35,785 km above the equator at the same speed the Earth rotates, allowing the satellite to constantly view the same area of the planet and track weather conditions and hazards as they happen. The satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument recently captured stunning views of Earth in 16 spectral channels. This data provides researchers information about Earth’s atmosphere, land, and ocean for short-term forecasts and tracking severe weather – see Figure. ABI data is also used for detecting and monitoring environmental hazards, such as wildfires, smoke, dust storms, volcanic eruptions, turbulence, and fog. Data from multiple ABI channels can be combined to create imagery that approximates what the human eye would see from space referred to as GeoColor (see Figure).
Figure. [Left] The GOES-19 images show the contiguous U.S. observed by each of the Advanced Baseline Imager’s (ABI) 16 channels on August 30, 2024, at 6:00 PM UTC. This 16-panel image [progressing left to right, across each row] shows the ABI’s two visible (gray scale), four near-infrared (IR) (gray scale), and 10 infrared channels (warmer brightness temperatures of the IR bands map to warmer colors). Each band’s appearance illustrates how it reflects or absorbs radiation. [Right] The GOES-19 full disk GeoColor image combines data from multiple ABI channels to approximate what the human eye would see from space. Figure Credit: NOAA GOES-19 is the final satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R series and serves as a bridge to a new age of advanced satellite technology. NOAA and NASA are currently developing NOAA’s next generation geostationary satellites, called Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO), to advance operational geostationary Earth observations.
NASA Earth sciences celebrated several satellite milestone anniversaries in 2024. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory (CO) celebrated its 10th anniversary in February while Aura and Orbiting Carbon Observatory–2 (OCO–2) celebrated their 20th and 10th anniversaries, respectively, in July. Here, we focus on GPM and Aura.
The GPM CO launched on February 27, 2024, aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, as a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). To celebrate its 10th anniversary, GPM has been hosting special outreach activities. One example is the GPM 10-in-10 webinar series that began on February 8, 2024. This series of 10 public webinars explores GPM and the story behind the mission, which is aimed at anyone interested in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the synergy of these disciplines to better understand and protect our home planet.
Now over 10 years into the mission, GPM continues to provide important data on precipitation around the globe leading to new scientific discoveries and contributing data to help society, from monitoring storms to supporting weather forecasts and aiding water-borne disease public health alerts.
As an example, GPM made several passes of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall near Siesta Key, FL on October 9, 2024 as a Category 3 storm. As a complement to GPM CO observations, a multi-satellite sensor IMERG animation shows rainfall rates and accumulation over the course of Milton’s history.
To read more about how GPM continues to observe important precipitation characteristics and gain physical insights into precipitation processes, please see the article “GPM Celebrates Ten Years of Observing Precipitation for Science and Society” in The Earth Observer.
The last of NASA’s three EOS Flagships – Aura – marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, 2024, with a celebration on September 18, 2024, at Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Recreational Center. The 120 attendees – including about 40 participating virtually – reminisced about Aura’s (originally named EOS-CHEM) tumultuous beginning, from the instrument and Principal Investigator (PI) selections up until the delayed launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) in California. They remembered how Bill Townsend, who was Deputy Director of GSFC at the time, and Ghassem Asrar, who was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Earth Science, spent many hours on site negotiating with the Vandenberg and Boeing launch teams in preparation for launch (after several delays and aborts). Photo 1 shows the Aura mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg shortly before launch.
Photo 1. The Aura (formerly EOS CHEM) mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several of instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) shortly before launch on July 15, 2004. The individuals pictured [left to right] are Reinhold Beer [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) PI]; John Gille [University of Colorado, Boulder/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)—High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) PI]; Pieternel Levelt [Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute—Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) PI]; Ernest Hilsenrath [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Aura Deputy Scientist and U.S. OMI Co-PI]; Anne Douglass [GSFC—Aura Deputy PS]; Mark Schoeberl [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist];Joe Waters [NASA/JPL—Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) PI]; P.K. Bhartia [GSFC—OMI Science Team Leader and former Aura Project Scientist]; and Phil DeCola [NASA Headquarters—Aura Program Scientist]. NOTE: Affiliations/titles listed for individuals named were those at the time of launch. Photo Credit: Ernest Hilsenrath At the anniversary event, Bryan Duncan [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist] gave formal opening remarks. Aura’s datasets have given a generation of scientists the most comprehensive global view of gases in Earth’s atmosphere to better understand the chemical and dynamic processes that shape their concentrations. Aura’s objective was to gather data to monitor Earth’s ozone layer, examine trends in global air pollutants, and measure the concentration of atmospheric constituents contributing to climate forcing. To read more about Aura’s incredible 20 years of accomplished air quality and climate science, see the anniversary article “Aura at 20 Years” in The Earth Observer.
To read more about the anniversary event, see Summary of Aura 20th Anniversary Event.
It has been over a year and a half since the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission began collecting data on the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface, including oceans, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. During that time, data collected by the satellite has started to improve our understanding of energy in the ocean, yielding insights on surface currents and waves, internal tides, the vertical mixing of seawater, as well as atmosphere–ocean interactions. Notably, SWOT has been measuring the amplitude of solitary internal waves in the ocean. These waves reflect the dynamics of internal tides (tides that occur deep in the ocean rather than at the surface) that can influence biological productivity as well as ocean energy exchanges through their contribution to mixing and general oceanic circulation.
SWOT measurements are also being used to study inland and coastal flooding to inform water management strategies. Earlier this year, researchers used SWOT data to measure the total volume of water during major floods in southern Brazil in April to improve understanding of these events and prepare for the future. In addition, the Water Ministry of Bangladesh is working to incorporate SWOT water elevation maps, along with other near-real time satellite data, into their flood forecasts. Researchers at Alexandria University, Egypt are using SWOT data in the Nile River Basin to improve dam operations. A detailed account of SWOT Significant Events since launch is available online. To learn more about project status and explore the many facets of operational and applied uses of SWOT data, please see The Earth Observer article, “Summary of the 10th SWOT Applications Workshop.”
In September 2024, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem–Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE–PAX) gathered data for the validation of the PACE mission, which launched in February 2024. The operations spanned Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions, logging 81 flight hours for the NASA ER-2, which operated out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Edwards, CA, and 60 hours for Twin Otter aircraft, which was operated by the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) out of Marina Municipal Airport in Marina, CA – see Photo 2.
Photo 2. The Twin Otter aircraft operated out of the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) during the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem–Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE–PAX) campaign. The image shows the Twin Otter aircraft missing the approach at Marina Airport to check instrument performance on the aircraft against identical instrumentation on an airport control tower. Photo credit: ???TBD ??? Congratulations to PACE-PAX leads Kirk Knobelspiesse [GSFC], Brian Cairns [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)], and Ivona Cetinić [GSFC/Morgan State University] for successfully executing and planning this campaign. PACE–PAX data will be available in March 2025 via NASA’s Langley Research Center Suborbital Science Data for Atmospheric Composition website and NASA’s SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS).
Photo 3. Clockwise from top left: Mike Ondrusek (NOAA), mission scientist of the R/V Shearwater, waves to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Twin Otter as it samples at low altitude. Bridge fire in San Gabriel mountains, September 10, 2024. Photo by NASA ER-2 pilot Kirt Stallings. Carl Goodwin (JPL) performs calibration reference measurements at Ivanpah Playa, California. Scott Freeman (GSFC) and Harrison Smith (GSFC) deploy instrumentation from the R/V Shearwater in the Santa Barbara Channel. Instrument integration on the NASA ER-2 in preparation for PACE-PAX. San Francisco observed by the NPS Twin Otter as it samples at low altitude over the San Francisco Bay. The R/V Shearwater seen from the NPS Twin Otter. Photo credit: ???TBD ??? Shifting venues, NASA’s BlueFlux Campaign conducted a series of ground-based and airborne fieldwork missions out of the Miami Homestead Air Reserve Base and the Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, which are adjacent to the eastern border of the Everglades National Park. The full study region – broadly referred to as South Florida – is narrowly defined by the wetland ecosystems that extend from Lake Okeechobee and its Northern estuaries to the saltwater marshland and mangrove forests along the state’s southernmost shore.
Glenn Wolfe [GSFC] and Erin Delaria [GSFC/UMD] organized more than 34 flights across 5 separate fieldwork deployments during the campaign. The data during BlueFlux are intended to contribute to a more robust understanding of how Florida’s coastal ecology fits into the carbon cycle. The article, “NASA’s BlueFlux Campaign Supports Blue Carbon Management in South Florida,” provides additional information about this program, which was made possible by David Lagomasino [East Carolina University], Cheryl Doughty [GSFC/UMD], Lola Fatoyinbo [GSFC], and Peter Raymond [Yale University].
To learn more about PACE-PAX and BlueFlux, see: Updates on NASA Field Campaigns.
Notable recent Science Support Office (SSO) outreach activities include the 2024 Eclipse outreach and engagement efforts on April 7, 2024, in Kerrville, TX and Cleveland, OH. The two locations are among a dozen that NASA set up along path of totality. To read about the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse through the eyes of NASA outreach and engagement activities, please see The Earth Observer feature article, “Looking Back on Looking Up: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.”
The SSO also supported the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future event and the 79th General Assembly High Level week, September 19–27, 2024 at UN Headquarters (HQ) in New York City, NY. SSO supported the NASA Sea Level Change Team (N-SLCT) during the High-level Meeting on Sea-Level Rise by having Hyperwall content available for the release of the new Pacific Flooding Analysis Tool. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson visited the Hyperwall on September 23 with Aarti Holla-Maini [UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)—Director]. Karen St. Germain [NASA HQ—Director of the Earth Science Division], Julie Robinson [NASA HQ—Deputy Director of the Earth Science Division], Kate Calvin [NASA HQ—NASA Chief Scientist], Lesley Ott [GSFC— Climate Scientist], and Anjali Tripathi [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Astrophysicist] talked with delegates and members about NASA Science and accessed NASA global datasets. Photos from the event are available at the SSO Flickr Page.
Looking ahead, the SSO is once again leading the planning and logistics for the NASA exhibit at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, which will be held December 9–13, 2024 in Washington, DC. Nearly 40 NASA projects and missions will have hands-on activities within the perimeter of the NASA Science exhibit, from the James Webb Space Telescope to the Airborne Science Fleet. The NASA Hyperwall, a video wall used for visual-forward science storytelling, will host approximately 50 Hyperwall stories and presentations throughout the meeting, including presentations delivered by the 2024 winners of the NASA-funded AGU Michael H. Freilich Student Visualization Competition. The exhibit will also feature roughly 40 tech demonstrations throughout the week, covering a wide range of hands-on introductions to everything from the capabilities of the OpenSpace data visualization software to the scientific applications of augmented reality. Please be sure to stop by the NASA exhibit when you are at AGU.
Steve Platnick
EOS Senior Project Scientist
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Today, the European Space Agency signed six contracts that will help position Greece as a key player in the field of Earth observation.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Coastal locations, such as Drakes Bay on the Point Reyes peninsula in Northern California, are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise.NOAA/NMFS/WCR/CCO The information will help people who live in coastal areas prepare for impacts caused by rising sea levels.
Earth’s ocean is rising, disrupting livelihoods and infrastructure in coastal communities around the world. Agencies and organizations are working to prepare people as their world changes around them, and NASA information is helping these efforts.
The agency’s global data is now available in the sea level section of the Earth Information Center. NASA developed the global sea level change website in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of State, and the United Nations Development Programme.
The site includes information on projected sea level rise through the year 2150 for coastlines around the world, as well as estimates of how much flooding a coastal community or region can expect to see in the next 30 years. The projections come from data collected by NASA and its partners and from computer models of ice sheets and the ocean, as well as the latest sea level assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and other sources.
“NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity. Our cutting-edge instruments and data-driven information tools help communities and organizations respond to natural hazards and extreme weather, and inform critical coastal infrastructure planning decisions,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Information to Action
International organizations such as the World Bank will use the data from the global sea level change site for tasks including the creation of Climate Risk Profiles for countries especially vulnerable to sea level rise.
The Defense Department will continue to incorporate sea level rise data into its plans to anticipate and respond to hazards posed to its facilities by the effects of rising oceans. Similarly, the State Department uses the information for activities ranging from disaster preparedness to long-term adaptation planning to supporting partners around the world in related efforts.
“We are at a moment of truth in our fight against the climate crisis. The science is unequivocal and must serve as the bedrock upon which decision-making is built. With many communities around the world already facing severe impacts from sea-level rise, this new resource provides a vital tool to help them protect lives and livelihoods. It also illustrates what is at stake between a 1.5-degree-Celsius world and a current-policies trajectory for all coastal communities worldwide,” said Assistant Secretary-General Selwin Hart, special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general on climate action and just transition.
Rising Faster
NASA-led data analyses have revealed that between 1970 and 2023, 96% of countries with coastlines have experienced sea level rise. The rate of that global rise has also accelerated, more than doubling from 0.08 inches (0.21 centimeters) per year in 1993 to about 0.18 inches (0.45 centimeters) per year in 2023.
As the rate of sea level rise increases, millions of people could face the related effects sooner than previously projected, including larger storm surges, more saltwater intrusion into groundwater, and additional high-tide flood days — also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods.
“This new platform shows the timing of future floods and the magnitude of rising waters in all coastal countries worldwide, connecting science and physics to impacts on people’s livelihoods and safety,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director of the ocean physics program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Data released earlier this year found that Pacific Island nations will experience at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise in the next 30 years. The number of high-tide flood days will increase by an order of magnitude for nearly all Pacific Island nations by the 2050s.
“The data is clear: Sea levels are rising around the world, and they’re rising faster and faster,” said Ben Hamlington, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and head of the agency’s sea level change science team. “Having the best information to make decisions about how to plan for rising seas is more crucial than ever.”
To explore the global sea level change site:
https://earth.gov/sealevel
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Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
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Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 Related Terms
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5 min read JPL Workforce Update
Article 17 hours ago 6 min read Inia Soto Ramos, From the Mountains of Puerto Rico to Mountains of NASA Earth Data
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By NASA
Name: Dr. Inia Soto Ramos
Title and Formal Job Classification: Associate Research Scientist
Organization: Ocean Ecology Laboratory (Code 616) via Morgan State University and GESTAR II cooperative agreement
Dr. Inia Soto Ramos is an associate research scientist with NASA’s PACE — the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission — at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Photo courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
I am currently co-leading the validation efforts for PACE, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission. I am also part of NASA’s SeaBASS (SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System) team, which is responsible for archiving, distributing, and managing field data used for validation and development of satellite ocean color data products. It has been exciting to be a part of a satellite mission, to see it being built, tested and launched. And now, be able to validate the data and in the near future, use the data to do science.
What is your educational background?
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, and I have a master’s and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of South Florida.
How did you get your foot in the door at NASA?
While I was a student at the University of Puerto Rico, I saw a flyer for a program called PaSCoR (Partnership for Spatial and Computational Research). It was a partnership between universities, NASA and other institutions with the intent to train students in remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems. Although, this program was targeted mainly for engineers, I decided to apply. That took me to the first remote sensing classes I had taken. That’s how I started learning that you can study the ocean from space. I had no idea that could be done. That program planted the curiosity about satellite oceanography and gave me the tools to go into graduate school in that field.
How did you first gain exposure to oceanography and diving?
I am from Puerto Rico and grew up all the way in the mountains. There wasn’t much of a connection to the ocean for me, only a few trips to the beach. I remember my dad taking me to a small beach called La Poza del Obispo in Arecibo and he held me while I used a small snorkel underwater. That was the first connection I had with marine life. I started diving sometime when I was about 18 years old, and I remember saying, “This is the most amazing thing ever,” and that’s when I decided I needed to pursue a life in that field.
What interested you in phytoplankton as a specialty?
Initially, I was curious about harmful algal blooms in the West Florida Shelf, which I studied when I moved to Florida to do my grad studies. I learned that the blooms can produce neurotoxins, and those can affect humans in different ways. So, if you have asthma, they can make you feel worse. I remember developing asthma that night after going to the beach and having go to the ER. I didn’t see the connection at the time until I learned about these events and how toxins can get in the air. It felt like something important that I could study to help people or do something that’s meaningful. It’s amazing that we can see something so tiny from space and study them.
How does your identity, being a Latina, show up at NASA?
This is kind of a dream come true. It is so amazing to be able to fulfill that dream. I came from a small town. There appeared to me no chances to come all the way to NASA. So, having this opportunity is exciting, and bringing it back to my community and saying, “Hey, anyone can actually do it.” One of the advantages is that you speak a different language, so you can make connections with different countries.
What do you look forward to in the future? What are some of your goals?
I would love to keep growing in my field. As a mother, sometimes is hard to visualize where I want to be in the future, so I find it best to focus on the present. My priority right now is my family, however in the future I would love to engage in a job in which I can transfer my knowledge and love to the oceans to future generations; and be more involved in the community.
When you think of your village and growing up in Puerto Rico, what is a memory you have that makes you smile?
I still remember going to collect coffee with my mom and dad. My dad had a small basket for me that I would fill with only the most beautiful red grains of coffee. I was around 5 years old, and I remember the toys that my mom would take, and they’d settle me under the coffee trees. I still go to Puerto Rico, and I am fascinated when I see the coffee trees; it reminds me of my childhood.
What advice would you give to other little girls who might not think NASA is a dream they can achieve?
I was the little girl with the dream of being a scientist at NASA, and then I was a teenager, an adult, and a mother, all with the same dream! It took me several decades and many life stages to get here. Many times, along my path, I thought of giving up. Others, I thought I was completely off track and I would never fulfill my dream. I had limited resources while growing up. There were no fancy swimming or piano classes, but I had amazing teachers and mentors who guided me along the way. So, no matter how young or old you are, you can still fulfill that dream. The key to success is to know where you want to go, surround yourself with people that believe in you, and if you fall, just shake it off and try again!
By Alexa Figueroa
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Nov 12, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
People of Goddard Earth Goddard Space Flight Center PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) People of NASA SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) View the full article
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Voyager 2 captured this image of Uranus while flying by the ice giant in 1986. New research using data from the mission shows a solar wind event took place during the flyby, leading to a mystery about the planet’s magnetosphere that now may be solved.NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers.
When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first — and, so far, only — close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted scientists. The energized particles around the planet defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation, and Uranus earned a reputation as an outlier in our solar system.
Now, new research analyzing the data collected during that flyby 38 years ago has found that the source of that particular mystery is a cosmic coincidence: It turns out that in the days just before Voyager 2’s flyby, the planet had been affected by an unusual kind of space weather that squashed the planet’s magnetic field, dramatically compressing Uranus’ magnetosphere.
“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published in Nature Astronomy. “The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.”
The first panel of this artist’s concept depicts how Uranus’s magnetosphere — its protective bubble — was behaving before the flyby of NASA’s Voyager 2. The second panel shows an unusual kind of solar weather was happening during the 1986 flyby, giving scientists a skewed view of the magnetosphere.NASA/JPL-Caltech Magnetospheres serve as protective bubbles around planets (including Earth) with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, shielding them from jets of ionized gas — or plasma — that stream out from the Sun in the solar wind. Learning more about how magnetospheres work is important for understanding our own planet, as well as those in seldom-visited corners of our solar system and beyond.
That’s why scientists were eager to study Uranus’ magnetosphere, and what they saw in the Voyager 2 data in 1986 flummoxed them. Inside the planet’s magnetosphere were electron radiation belts with an intensity second only to Jupiter’s notoriously brutal radiation belts. But there was apparently no source of energized particles to feed those active belts; in fact, the rest of Uranus’ magnetosphere was almost devoid of plasma.
The missing plasma also puzzled scientists because they knew that the five major Uranian moons in the magnetic bubble should have produced water ions, as icy moons around other outer planets do. They concluded that the moons must be inert with no ongoing activity.
Solving the Mystery
So why was no plasma observed, and what was happening to beef up the radiation belts? The new data analysis points to the solar wind. When plasma from the Sun pounded and compressed the magnetosphere, it likely drove plasma out of the system. The solar wind event also would have briefly intensified the dynamics of the magnetosphere, which would have fed the belts by injecting electrons into them.
The findings could be good news for those five major moons of Uranus: Some of them might be geologically active after all. With an explanation for the temporarily missing plasma, researchers say it’s plausible that the moons actually may have been spewing ions into the surrounding bubble all along.
Planetary scientists are focusing on bolstering their knowledge about the mysterious Uranus system, which the National Academies’ 2023 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey prioritized as a target for a future NASA mission.
JPL’s Linda Spilker was among the Voyager 2 mission scientists glued to the images and other data that flowed in during the Uranus flyby in 1986. She remembers the anticipation and excitement of the event, which changed how scientists thought about the Uranian system.
“The flyby was packed with surprises, and we were searching for an explanation of its unusual behavior. The magnetosphere Voyager 2 measured was only a snapshot in time,” said Spilker, who has returned to the iconic mission to lead its science team as project scientist. “This new work explains some of the apparent contradictions, and it will change our view of Uranus once again.”
Voyager 2, now in interstellar space, is almost 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.
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Last Updated Nov 11, 2024 Related Terms
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