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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
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A 3D simulation showing the evolution of turbulent flows in the upper layers of the Sun. The more saturated and bright reds represent the most vigorous upward or downward twisting motions. Clear areas represent areas where there is only relatively slow up-flows, with very little twisting.NASA/Irina Kitiashvili and Timothy A. Sandstrom NASA supercomputers are shedding light on what causes some of the Sun’s most complex behaviors. Using data from the suite of active Sun-watching spacecraft currently observing the star at the heart of our solar system, researchers can explore solar dynamics like never before.
The animation shows the strength of the turbulent motions of the Sun’s inner layers as materials twist into its atmosphere, resembling a roiling pot of boiling water or a flurry of schooling fish sending material bubbling up to the surface or diving it further down below.
“Our simulations use what we call a realistic approach, which means we include as much as we know to-date about solar plasma to reproduce different phenomena observed with NASA space missions,” said Irina Kitiashvili, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley who helped lead the study.
Using modern computational capabilities, the team was able, for the first time to reproduce the fine structures of the subsurface layer observed with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
“Right now, we don’t have the computational capabilities to create realistic global models of the entire Sun due to the complexity,” said Kitiashvili. “Therefore, we create models of smaller areas or layers, which can show us structures of the solar surface and atmosphere – like shock waves or tornado-like features measuring only a few miles in size; that’s much finer detail than any one spacecraft can resolve.”
Scientists seek to better understand the Sun and what phenomena drive the patterns of its activity. The connection and interactions between the Sun and Earth drive the seasons, ocean currents, weather, climate, radiation belts, auroras and many other phenomena. Space weather predictions are critical for exploration of space, supporting the spacecraft and astronauts of NASA’s Artemis campaign. Surveying this space environment is a vital part of understanding and mitigating astronaut exposure to space radiation and keeping our spacecraft and instruments safe.
This has been a big year for our special star, studded with events like the annular eclipse, a total eclipse, and the Sun reaching its solar maximum period. In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission – which is helping researchers to understand space weather right at the source – will make its closest-ever approach to the Sun and beat its own record of being the closest human-made object to reach the Sun.
The Sun keeps surprising us. We are looking forward to seeing what kind of exciting events will be organized by the Sun."
Irina Kitiashvili
NASA Scientist
“The Sun keeps surprising us,” said Kitiashvili. “We are looking forward to seeing what kind of exciting events will be organized by the Sun.”
These simulations were run on the Pleaides supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at NASA Ames over several weeks of runtime, generating terabytes of data.
NASA is showcasing 29 of the agency’s computational achievements at SC24, the international supercomputing conference, Nov. 17-22, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. For more technical information, visit:
https://www.nas.nasa.gov/sc24
For news media: Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Peru’s Vice Minister of Defense Policies for Ministry of Defense César Medardo Torres Vega, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and Director of Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen meet in Lima, Peru, Nov. 14, 2024, where the U.S. and Peru signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to study a potential sounding rocket campaign.Credit: U.S. Embassy Peru NASA and Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) laid the groundwork for a potential multi-year scientific rocket launch campaign in the South American country.
Both countries signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding Thursday that includes safety training, a joint feasibility study for the potential campaign, and technical assistance for CONIDA on sounding rocket launches. Sounding rockets are small, low-cost rockets that provide suborbital access to space.
“We are excited to look at the possibility of once again launching sounding rockets from Peru,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who signed on behalf of the United States. “This agreement deepens our international partnership with Peru and the scientific research we conduct because of the country’s location along the magnetic equator. Together we will go farther.”
Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen, head of CONIDA, signed on behalf of Peru. Brian Nichols, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the U.S. State Department, and Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, U.S. ambassador to Peru, also participated, among other Peruvian officials. The event took place during the week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum beginning Nov. 9 in Lima.
During his visit to Peru, Nelson also discussed the importance of international partnerships and collaboration in space and celebrated Peru’s signing of the Artemis Accords earlier this year.
The United States and Peru have a long history of space cooperation. NASA conducted sounding rocket campaigns at CONIDA’s Punta Lobos launch base in 1975 and 1983.
NASA uses sounding rockets to carry scientific instruments into space on suborbital flights to collect important science data and test prototype instruments. They yield invaluable data that enhance our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere and weather, our solar system, and the universe, and test equipment for deeper space travel.
Understanding our Earth’s atmosphere and how it is influenced by the Sun is crucial to protecting ground and space-based assets that we rely on every day, from the power grid to weather data and even navigation.
For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/oiir
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Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) Sounding Rockets View the full article
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This September 2024 aerial photograph shows the coastal launch range at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Wallops is the agency’s only owned-and-operated launch range.Courtesy Patrick J. Hendrickson; used with permission NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is scheduled to support the launch of a suborbital sounding rocket for the U.S. Department of Defense during a launch window that runs 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT each day from Wednesday, Oct. 23 to Friday, Oct. 25.
No real-time launch status updates will be available. The launch will not be livestreamed nor will launch status updates be provided during the countdown. The Wallops Visitor Center will be closed to the public.
The rocket launch is expected to be visible from the Chesapeake Bay region.
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Last Updated Oct 22, 2024 LocationWallops Flight Facility Related Terms
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Farms in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta face strict reporting requirements for water usage because the delta supplies most of the state’s freshwater. This Landsat image uses infrared wavelengths to depict vegetation.Credit: U.S. Geological Survey The 30-acre pear orchard in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has been in Brett Baker’s family since the end of the Gold Rush. After six generations, though, California’s most precious resource is no longer gold – it’s water. And most of the state’s freshwater is in the delta.
Landowners there are required to report their water use, but methods for monitoring were expensive and inaccurate. Recently, however, a platform called OpenET, created by NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other partners, has introduced the ability to calculate the total amount of water transferred from the surface to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. This is a key measure of the water that’s actually being removed from a local water system. It’s calculated based on imagery from Landsat and other satellites.
“It’s good public policy to start with a measure everyone can agree upon,” Baker said.
OpenET is only one of the latest uses researchers and businesses continue finding for Landsat over 50 years after the program started collecting continuous imagery of Earth’s surface. NASA has built and launched all nine of the satellites before handing them over to USGS, which manages the program.
Some of the most pressing questions people ask about Earth are about the food it’s producing. Agriculture and adjacent industries are among the heaviest users of Earth-imaging data, which can help assess crop health and predict yields.
The latest Landsat satellite, Landsat 9, went into orbit in fall of 2021. NASA and the USGS are already developing options for the next iteration of Landsat, currently known as Landsat Next.Credit: NASA Even in this well-established niche, though, new capabilities continue to emerge. One up-and-coming company is using Landsat to validate sustainable farming practices by measuring carbon stored in the ground, which can be detected in the reflectance rate in certain wavelengths. This is how Perennial Inc. is enabling emerging markets for carbon credits, through which farmers get paid for maximizing their land’s storage of carbon.
The company is also discovering interest among food companies that want to reduce their environmental impact by choosing eco-conscious suppliers, as well as companies in the fertilizer, farm equipment, and agricultural lending businesses.
Landsat also enables countless map-based apps, studies of changes in Earth’s surface cover over half a century, and so much more.
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