AURORAL FRIENDS
From Satellites:
While ground observers are important for confirmation of auroras and how bright they are, several NASA satellites will be useful in determining the brightness and location of auroras. You will be able to use data from four NASA satellites. These satellites are POES (Polar Operational Environmental Satellite - a joint NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)) mission, Polar, TIMED (Thermosphere*Ionosphere*Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics), and IMAGE (Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Aurora; Global Exploration). IMAGE is no longer transmitting new images, but the archive is still useful.
If you are just Getting Started, you will use the images from the POES and Polar satellites. When you become comfortable interpreting these data, you can make More Advanced Observations by getting data from Polar VIS, TIMED (Thermosphere*Ionosphere*Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) GUVI, and IMAGE FUV satellites from previous days and years. This will allow you to do research that isn't possible with the most recent images.
All of the times given in the images are in Universal Time.
- NASA Official: Dr. James Thieman
- Project Manager: Don Robinson-Boonstra
- Website Manager: Bryan Stephenson