Science on a Sphere Recently Developed Content and Outreach Programs Rick Kohrs Space Science & Engineering Center University of Wisconsin - Madison Science on a Sphere Workshop Imiloa Astronomy Center – Hilo, Hawaii July 31 st, 2008

The Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin (UW) wrote a successful grant proposal to purchase a Magic Planet Magic Planet is now being used as a test facility for content destined for the SOS Virtual Dataset Library as well as visualization tool for outreach programs New Content Endeavors Using funding from a NOAA Educational Literacy Grant, SSEC has been creating content for museum visitors to hear/see the ‘Story of Weather Satellites’ During the next 3 years, our Magic Planet will travel to four Wisconsin museums giving an estimate 150,000 museum visitors the chance to view the story and other SSEC created real-time content

Chapter 1: Day/Night Animations Day/night animations for a single day ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/land/day_night/06z_only and a single time (6 UTC) for a whole year ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/land/day_night/oneday are used as an introduction to sun synchronous orbiting satellites Story of Weather Satellites

Chapter 2: Sun Synchronous Satellites The first animation shows a NOAA polar orbiting satellite with respect to day/night ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/atmosphere/sunsync_sat/ The second animation shows a NOAA polar orbiting satellite scaning the earth ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/atmosphere/poes_sat Currently a docent is needed to fill in information about the pluses/minuses of polar orbiting satellites with respect to weather systems (we hope to have audio at a later date) Story of Weather Satellites

Chapter 3: Geosynchronous Satellites The first animation shows locations of geostationary satellite around the world and the geographical coverage viewed by each satellite (playlist timing of this animation is still under development and we hope to have the dataset available for the virtual library soon) Again a docent is needed to fill in information about the pluses/minuses of geostationary satellites with respect to weather systems (we hope to have audio at a later date) Story of Weather Satellites

Chapter 4: All Satellites The next animation shows locations of many weather satellites and their orbits. I’ll admit this is a crazy animation, but the kids absolutely love it! (Dataset is not currently available in the virtual library) This animation leads into images showing global images of weather system. Story of Weather Satellites

Chapter 5: Different Sensors Next we show animations of visible, infrared and water vapor and stress that each individual channel/wavelength is important for weater forecasters (Datasets is not currently available in the virtual library) Story of Weather Satellites

Chapter 6: Combining Satellite and Surface Data We like to end the story showing the 2005 hurricane season animation of water vapor imagery over sea surface temperatures (ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/atmosphere/2005_hurricane/wvsst) Story of Weather Satellites

36,000 km (5.5 feet from globe) 715 km (1.25 inches from globe) Geostationary Orbit Polar Orbit Geostationary satellites orbit the Earth's axis as fast as the Earth spins. They hover over a single point above the Earth at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometers (22,300 miles). This orbit allows these satellites to continuously look at the same spot on the earth – important for locating the position of hurricanes and monitoring developing severe storms. NOAA typically operates two geostationary satellites called GOES (Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite). One has a good view of the East Coast (GOES-East) while the other focuses on the West Coast (GOES-West). Geostationary Orbit Polar satellites (also know as sun synchronous satellites) orbit above the Earth at about 715 kilometers (445 miles). Polar satellites monitor strong storms that move across the poles (regions of the Earth that Geostationary satellites cannot view). NOAA typically operates two polar satellites. One satellite views the afternoon portion of the Earth, while the other views the morning portion of the Earth. Polar Orbit Weather Satellites