JHU APL 2002-9 (TIMED spacecraft observes solar storms)

[Dennis O'Shea]

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Media Contact: Kristi Marren (JHU/APL)
(240) 228-6268
Kristi.Marren@jhuapl.edu, or
Nancy Neal (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
(301) 286-0039
ngneal@pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov
May 28, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NASA SPACECRAFT PROVIDES CRITICAL LINK IN SUN-EARTH CHAIN; TIMED OBSERVES 
ATMOSPHERE'S RESPONSE TO RECENT SOLAR STORMS

NASA's TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and 
Dynamics) spacecraft recently observed our atmosphere's response to a 
series of strong solar storms, providing important new information on the 
final link in the Sun-Earth Connection (SEC) chain of physical processes 
connecting the Sun and Earth.

"Several NASA spacecraft measured this strong activity coming from the Sun. 
Now TIMED provides the critical link between what happened on the Sun and 
Earth's response," says Dr. Sam Yee, TIMED project scientist, from the 
spacecraft's operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied 
Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and leader of the mission's science team.

"TIMED allows us to observe the global reaction of our upper atmosphere to 
solar activity," says Dr. Mary Mellott, TIMED program scientist from NASA 
Headquarters in Washington. "One of the current puzzles for the Sun-Earth 
Connection community is determining why some solar activity has significant 
geospace impact and some does not. Being able to monitor the impact so well 
with TIMED should allow the scientific community to make significant 
progress toward solving this SEC mystery."

Preliminary TIMED data will be featured in a special session at the Spring 
2002 American Geophysical Union meeting, May 31, in Washington, D.C., which 
is open to the media. Information about this session can be found at 
<http://www.agu.org/meetings/sm02Sessions.html#SA> (item SA02). Interested 
members of the press should visit <http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/media.html> 
for registration information.

Since TIMED's science mission began in January 2002, science team members 
say it has made great strides in helping them learn more about one of 
Earth's least understood atmospheric regions -- the Mesosphere and Lower 
Thermosphere/Ionosphere -- a gateway between Earth's environment and space. 
TIMED is the first of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes missions to globally 
study the influences of the Sun and humans on the MLTI region, located 
approximately 40-110 miles (60-180 kilometers) above the surface.

"TIMED's study of short-term events, such as the recent solar storms, will 
help us gain a better understanding of the dynamics of this gateway 
region," says Dr. Yee. "But our main goal is to understand the region's 
overall climate through a comprehensive set of global measurements we're 
collecting using TIMED's 4-instrument suite. With the core data we've 
already collected, we've taken the first step in assessing the region's 
global characteristics and seasonal variations, information that will help 
us establish a baseline for future studies."

Space weather in Earth's upper atmospheric regions can change as suddenly 
as our weather patterns on the ground. It can affect satellite 
communications and orbital tracking, spacecraft lifetimes and the reentry 
of piloted vehicles. "When a change occurs in one region of our atmosphere, 
it affects other regions," Dr. Yee says. "It's important that we better 
understand how this gateway region responds to various solar inputs, which 
affect our atmosphere's overall energy balance."

Images and videos of preliminary TIMED data can be downloaded from 
<http://www.timed.jhuapl.edu/press2/images.htm>.

The Solar Terrestrial Probes Program Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, Md., oversees the TIMED mission for the Office of Space 
Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins 
University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md., built and now 
operates the spacecraft, leads the project's science effort and manages the 
mission's Science Data Center for NASA.

For more information about TIMED, visit <http://www.timed.jhuapl.edu>.

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