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Destination Tomorrow - DT10 - Aurora Borealis

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Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment describing the Northern Lights and explaining how they affect satellite and ground communications behavior.

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The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is one of the most beautiful, natural-occurring 00:00:00
phenomena known to man. 00:00:17
These shimmering currents of light, which are normally seen near the Arctic Circle, 00:00:19
have intrigued and inspired observers for thousands of years. 00:00:23
Until the late 19th century, many still believed that the northern lights were driven by supernatural 00:00:28
means, rather than by natural means. 00:00:33
Although these old beliefs are intriguing, we now know that the auroras are actually 00:00:36
caused by energized particles colliding with the Earth's magnetosphere. 00:00:40
Until recently, the auroras had little direct impact on life here on Earth. 00:00:45
But with almost every person on the planet now relying on satellites and electricity 00:00:49
as part of their daily lives, the need to understand auroral activity has increased. 00:00:53
This is because those same particles that collide with the magnetosphere to create the 00:00:59
northern lights can also severely damage important satellites and cause outages in electrical 00:01:03
power grids around the world. 00:01:08
In an effort to better understand these events, NASA is using innovative technologies to learn 00:01:11
more about the northern lights and how they affect us here on Earth. 00:01:15
I spoke with NASA Goddard's Dr. Sten Odenwald here at the Andoya Rocket Range in Andenese, 00:01:19
Norway to find out more. 00:01:23
It's a very complicated process that leads to an aurora. 00:01:26
Once you see it, the whole process is sort of hidden from view. 00:01:29
You know, we understand a little bit about how the particles get from the outer parts 00:01:32
of the magnetic field of the Earth and into the atmosphere, but we don't see the details. 00:01:35
You know, how the particles go from one kind of a system into another, how they get boosted 00:01:40
in energy. 00:01:44
Even at this late stage, we don't exactly know what the particles are that produce the 00:01:45
aurora. 00:01:49
Tracking them from where they're produced and where they're energized all the way down 00:01:50
to the atmosphere is still something of a mystery. 00:01:55
And that's why we have satellite and rocket experiments that are trying to fill in those 00:01:58
missing pieces of the puzzle. 00:02:01
To understand why it is important to study the northern lights, we must first understand 00:02:03
how they work. 00:02:07
The sun is constantly emitting streams of electrically charged particles in all directions. 00:02:08
This stream of charged particles is called the solar wind. 00:02:14
Since the sun is 93 million miles away, it takes about three days for the particles to 00:02:17
reach Earth. 00:02:23
As the solar winds flow by the Earth, it causes a disturbance in the Earth's magnetosphere. 00:02:24
This disturbance energizes currents of particles, which are steered by magnetic forces towards 00:02:30
the Earth's poles. 00:02:35
These energized particles collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in our atmosphere, which 00:02:37
produce the colorful light that we see in the aurora. 00:02:42
Although beautiful to watch, these currents of particles are actually a form of electricity, 00:02:46
which can generate up to 800 gigawatts of electrical power. 00:02:51
This electrical energy flowing in the upper atmosphere can cause currents to flow in the 00:02:56
ground, producing disruptions in communication, electrical outages, and fuel leaks. 00:03:00
The high energy particles flowing in space that often accompany these storms can also 00:03:06
hit satellites, damaging their sensitive electronics and creating false commands. 00:03:11
This can wreak havoc on television, pager, and other communication services here on Earth. 00:03:17
NASA researchers hope to find new ways to predict not only when these storms will hit 00:03:22
Earth, but also hope to find ways to reduce their destructive effects when they do. 00:03:27
What are some of the tools you use to study the Northern Lights? 00:03:32
We have satellites that seem to be able to look at everything that goes on with a solar 00:03:36
storm and the production of aurora, literally from cradle to grave. 00:03:41
We have satellites that watch the solar surface for the big leaps of matter and energy. 00:03:45
We've got satellites that look at the wind in between the planets to watch what that's 00:03:50
doing. 00:03:54
We also have satellites that are in tighter orbits to the Earth so that they can look 00:03:55
at the poles of the Earth and see the aurora happen. 00:03:59
They can also measure electric fields in space and magnetic fields in space, so they 00:04:02
can also see the invisible flows of particles around the Earth. 00:04:06
And then finally, we have rockets that go up into the aurora from the bottom at the 00:04:09
same time that the satellites are passing overhead, so we can kind of see the physics 00:04:14
in between, flows of particles inwards, and the rockets see the electrical fields that 00:04:18
are set up by these things, and we get this complete picture from rockets and satellite 00:04:23
observations. 00:04:28
So why is Norway such a popular place to study the Northern Lights? 00:04:29
It turns out that Norway is a place that's very favorably located to actually see the 00:04:33
aurora directly overhead. 00:04:38
So you can launch the rockets directly up very quickly to get into the aurora at the 00:04:40
time that they're changing. 00:04:44
Dr. Odenwald, how do you think NASA research is helping us better understand the aurora 00:04:45
and its impact on Earth? 00:04:50
Well, NASA's invested an awful lot of time and effort into providing scientists with 00:04:52
the technology and equipment they need to really make powerful and insightful discoveries 00:04:56
about how aurora work. 00:05:01
And that feeds into our knowledge of the environment that we live in in space, and how that affects 00:05:03
human technology, our billions of dollars of satellites that we have there, the health 00:05:09
of astronauts because of the energetic particles. 00:05:13
It all works together, and if we can deeply understand space weather effects with the 00:05:17
help of NASA technology, it's going to be much easier for us to operate in space, and 00:05:23
that's the direction that we want to go as a civilization. 00:05:27
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
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Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
540
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
05′ 32″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
32.18 MBytes

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