SOHO Scavenger Hunt

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Western Carolina University *

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104

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Electrical Engineering

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Apr 3, 2024

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Uploaded by ElderHeatFish47

SOHO Scavenger Hunt! Objective: This activity explores the collaborative project SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite that launched in the mid-90s. The Sun is our nearest star and makes up 99% of the entire mass of our solar system. By continuously monitoring the Sun, we are now able to recognize some of its distinct patterns and behavior. Instructions: Go to the SOHO website: soho.nascom.nasa.gov Use the Toolbar links to find the answers to the following questions. It’s a scavenger hunt so you will have to click around! Do not copy and paste text from the website, use your own words, unless reporting specific numbers or data. 1. What is SOHO’s mission? study the Sun from its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind. 2. Where is SOHO’s orbit located? First Lagrangian point 3. What does EIT stand for? Hint: this is an instrument attached to the satellite. Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope 4. What layers of the Sun is the EIT studying? Outer layers – solar corona 5. What elements does the EIT image from the Sun?

SDO, AIA 6. We are currently in the early stages of what is known as a solar cycle. How many sunspots (dark spots) are currently visible today? Please write the date in your answer. Include those that are on the periphery but may not be labeled. About 11 that are visible. 3585,3583,3582,3576,3581,3584 7. Using the ‘list of all available daily images’, find the sunspot image for May 20, 2014, during another solar cycle. How many sunspots are visible in that image? Abou 10-15 8. The solar cycle prior to 2014 peaked around November of 2001. Find the average time between these 3 solar cycle years (2001, 2014, 2024) and predict in what year the next one will occur. An estimate is fine. 2034-2038 in about 11 years 9. Now, do some research about solar cycles. How often do they occur, on average (in years)? Does your answer in question 8 support that number? 2-3 years, and no because another one would happen in about 11 years 10. What is the planetary K-index and why is it necessary to measure it? How often is it updated? Used to characterized the magnitude of geomagnetic storms its an indicator of disturbances in the earths magnetic field, updates every 3 hours

11. What is the largest geomagnetic event ever recorded during a solar cycle? You will have to leave the SOHO website to find this answer. The Carrington event 12. What caused the event, most likely? Coronal mass ejection from the sun colliding with earths magnetosphere 13. What is the current speed and density (in protons per cubic meter) of the solar wind? These numbers change often so answers will vary. Density 2.25 p/cm^3 Speed 392.7 km/s 14. Click on the solar wind link on the homepage. What is the background color of the plotted data from the University of Maryland and what does that color mean? Blue the soho is rotated 180 degrees from its normal orientation 15. This one will require some deep sleuthing. Find the archived news article from the ESA (European Space Agency) that discusses the discovery of solar ‘jet streams’ and explain what these jet streams are made of. The article pre-dates the year 2000. Hot electrically charged plasma

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16. How deep are the ‘jet streams’, how big (in diameter), and how fast do they move compared to the material around them? 30 thousand kilos 100mph faster than stuff around 17. What is the possible reason for the formation of these ‘jet streams’, as postulated in the article? When warm air masses meet cold air masses in the atmosphere 18. Look at the ‘Pick of the Week’ image. What is a notable feature visible in the image? The solar spots are colorful in blue red and green colors 19. Given that we are currently in an active solar cycle with an increase in magnetic (and sunspot) activity, would you expect to see greater or fewer CMEs in the coming months? Explain your answer. I would say there would be greater cmes because cmes eject magnetic field from the suns corona and since there is an increase in magnetic activity they are going to try to remove that activity 20. Click on ‘Classroom’ on the Toolbar and go to ‘Measuring a Coronal Mass Ejection’. Using the SOHO CME images (there are 5), fill out the table provided in this document. I have started it for you. The distance between

the white tick marks in the images represents about 1 solar diameter (the white circle is the Sun). Obviously, my numbers from the images are my own estimates and you can use your own estimates instead of mine. I am using the term ‘Length’ instead of ‘Position’ because I just think it works better for clarification purposes. I have done example calculations in the chart for you. Acceleration can be negative (just means the CME is slowing down). Note that I am measuring out to the tip of the CME (what I can see) when estimating length. 1 solar diameter is 1,400,000 km. Here are the equations I used in the table: Average velocity = ( final length − initiallength ) time intervalbetweenimages Averageacceleration = ( final velocity − starting velocity ) time intervalbetweenimages The chart is on the next page to avoid page breaks. Universal Time Time Interval Estimated Length (km) Average Velocity (km/s) Average Acceleration (km/s 2 )

between images (seconds) 08:05 Not applicable 2.25 solar diameters or 3,150,000 km Not applicable Not applicable 08:36 31 3 solar diameters or 4,200,000 km (4,200,000 km – 3,150,000 km) / 31 s = 33,871 km/s If we assume the initial velocity is zero: (33,871 km/s – 0 km/s)/ 31 s = 1092 km/s 2 09:27 51 4 solar diameters or 5,600,000 km (5,600,000 km – 4,200,000 km) / 51 s = 27,451 km/s (27,451 km/s – 33,871 km/s) / 51 s = -125 km/s 2 10:25 58 3.8 solar diameters or 3920000km (3920000km- 5600000km)/58s= -28,966 km/s (-28,966 km/s – 27451 km/s ) /58 s =- 973km/s^2 11:23 58 4.5 solar diameters or 6300000 km 6300000 km – 3920000km)/ 58s = (41,034km/s- (-)28966km/s)/58+10 27 3480s

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