1. Space Weather: The Solar Storms that Affect Us Created by: Janine Stovall Bernal Intermediate School, San Jose, CA Supported by: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA

2. What’s Ahead: The Sun Solar Storms – Solar wind – Solar flares – Coronal mass ejections Space Weather Impacts of solar radiation

3. What is our sun anyway? plasma Hot ball of glowing, electrified gas called plasma atter Plasma is the fourth state of matter bubbles to the Plasma bubbles to the surface and bursts out into space http://www.universetoday.com

4. What color is sunlight? Visible Sunlight Invisible Sunlight http://ed101.bu.edu http://images.google.com

5. Is the Sun on fire? No! oxygen – Fire is a chemical reaction that occurs in the presence of oxygen by reactions in its Energy is produced by nuclear reactions in its core – H atoms fuse together to form He + lots of energy http://www.animationlibrary.com

6. What’s the strangest thing about our sun? The corona can be seen from Earth during solar eclipses. The corona is much hotter than the surface of the sun. Corona reaches millions of miles into space. The most violent solar storms are seen in corona. http://www.amnh.org/education

7. Does our sun always look the same? Sun has a cycle that lasts about 11 years. Solar minimum Solar minimum–times with decreased number of sunspots Solar maximum Solar maximum–times with increased number of sunspots – More solar storms – More sunspots  more magnetic activity  more intense and frequent solar storms!

8. Let’s take a look at sunspots! http://earthobservatory.nasa.govhttp://www.windows2universe.org

9. Where is the sun in its cycle now?

10. What is a solar storm like? 3 major categories – Solar Flares Intense bursts of energy near sunspot regions – Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) the Extremely intense blasts of plasma from the corona – Solar Wind Constant stream of energy from corona

11. Solar Wind Steady stream of energetic particles Blows at 800,000 to 5 million miles per hour Blows in all directions mi w A million tons of matter blow from the corona every second http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov

12. How hard does solar wind blow? Solar wind wouldn’t ruffle the hairs on your head! But, the energy in the particles can generate electric currents that can affect Earth’s atmosphere http://images.google.com

13. Solar Flare Explosive bright spots near sunspot regions Equivalent to 10 million volcanic eruptions Blasts of radiation could strike Earth – X-rays – Radio waves – Gamma waves http://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/

14. Coronal Mass Ejection Violent explosion Huge plasma bubble erupts from corona -5 CME travels speeds of 1-5 million mph Crashes into solar wind creating a shock wave that accelerates solar wind particles to dangerous speeds. Particles can bombard the Earth

15. CME Blast Plasma blast Earth http://son.nasa.gov

16. Let’s take a look at solar storms! (video) http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=82351951

17. What is Space Weather? Solar wind slams into our mag. field Earth’s mag. field Solar storms smash into our mag. field You are here http://astrobioloblog.files.wordpress.com

18. How does solar radiation affect us? corrode pipelines destroy power grids  cause blackouts navigation and communication satellites can be damaged astronauts exposed to high radiation doses radio and TV disruptions beautiful effects of Earth-directed solar storms are auroras

19. Affects of solar radiation http://www.windows2universe.org

20. Space Weather and Auroras (video) http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/for_students.html

21. Exit Tickets! so Please take a few minutes to finish your notes. You may pair up with the person beside you to make sure your notes are complete! http://son.nasa.gov