Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Junocam camera in the Juno Observatory


 I refer to:
http://www.msss.com/all_projects/junocam.php

"...Junocam will acquire 3-color (red, green, blue) images of Jupiter during Juno’s first seven orbits around the giant planet. The data will be processed and studied by students as part of the Juno Education and Public Outreach effort.

 Junocam will support the Juno Mission’s Education and Public Outreach program. The camera, derived from the MSL MARDI instrument, is designed to acquire red-, green- and blue-wavelength images of Jupiter’s polar regions and lower-latitude cloud tops during Juno’s first seven orbits around the planet. These images, of approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) per pixel resolution, will be used by students to create the first color images of the jovian poles, as well as high resolution views of lower-latitude cloud belts. After the required, seven orbit design life, Junocam will continue to operate as long as possible in the harsh jovian radiation environment.

The Juno mission to Jupiter is a project led by Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, Texas. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is managing the project, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colorado, is building the spacecraft..."

Image of South America taken by Junocam as Juno flew by the Earth on October 9 2013 below

 The Earth and the Moon below
 I refer to:
http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82713

"...In October 2013, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past the Earth to steal some energy for a ride to Jupiter. Along the way, it also stole some glimpses of home.

To reach the outer planets in our solar system, mission planners usually chart a path that sends a spacecraft toward other small planets or the asteroid belt before falling back toward Earth by gravity. The technique allows the spacecraft to use natural gravity and momentum to increase its speed relative to the Sun and slingshot toward the outer solar system. In the case of Juno, the spacecraft received a boost in speed of more than 3.9 kilometers per second (8,800 miles per hour)......The composite view of the Earth and Moon was captured by low-resolution cameras that were designed to track faint stars and orient spacecraft sensors. The cameras are located near the tip of one of Juno’s solar-array arms and are part of the spacecraft’s Magnetic Field Investigation. Earth and the Moon came into view when Juno was about 966,000 kilometers (600,000 miles) away. Note how the Moon’s position relative to Earth changes because the Moon was moving and the spacecraft was approaching both....Juno was launched from Kennedy Space Center on August 5, 2011. It is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016."

Sun 131231, C8 flare with interesting II III V emission, 5 selected spectra

Many thanks to the Taxpayers of France, the Nancay Decametric Array Team at the Nancay Radio Astronomy Station of Paris Observatory, Trinity College Dublin Astrophysics Group, NOAA SWPC, and NASA SDO HMI Magnetograph Team.










Monday, December 30, 2013

Sun 131230, M3.1 and 10 C flares in AR 11936, 10 selected events

Many thanks to the Taxpayers of France, the Nancay Decametric Array Team at the Nancay Radio Astronomy Station of Paris Observatory, Trinity College Dublin Astrophysics Group, and NASA SDO HMI Magnetograph Team.














Saturday, December 28, 2013

Sun 131228, 9 C flares, 3 selected events, types III and V

Many thanks to the Taxpayers of France, the Nancay Decametric Array Team at the Nancay Radio Astronomy Station of Paris Observatory, Trinity College Dublin Astrophysics Group, and NASA SDO HMI Magnetograph Team.





Friday, December 27, 2013

Jupiter 131226 131227, non-Io-A, non-Io-C, Io-D

Many thanks to the Taxpayers of France, the Nancay Decametric Array Team at the Nancay Radio Astronomy Station of Paris Observatory, and Prof. Dr. Kazumasa Imai, Kochi National College of Technology, Kochi Japan.









Sun 131227, 7 C flares, 7 selected events, types I II III

Many thanks to the Taxpayers of France, the Nancay Decametric Array Team at the Nancay Radio Astronomy Station of Paris Observatory, Trinity College Dublin Astrophysics Group, and NASA SDO HMI Magnetograph Team.









Thursday, December 26, 2013

Owens and Forsyth 2013: The Heliospheric Magnetic Field

I refer to Owens and Forsyth 2013:
"The Heliospheric Magnetic Field"
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013LRSP...10....5O

Abstract:
"The heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) is the extension of the coronal magnetic field carried out into the solar system by the solar wind. It is the means by which the Sun interacts with planetary magnetospheres and channels charged particles propagating through the heliosphere. As the HMF remains rooted at the solar photosphere as the Sun rotates, the large-scale HMF traces out an Archimedean spiral. This pattern is distorted by the interaction of fast and slow solar wind streams, as well as the interplanetary manifestations of transient solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections. On the smaller scale, the HMF exhibits an array of waves, discontinuities, and turbulence, which give hints to the solar wind formation process. This review aims to summarise observations and theory of the small- and large-scale structure of the HMF. Solar-cycle and cycle-to-cycle evolution of the HMF is discussed in terms of recent spacecraft observations and pre-spaceage proxies for the HMF in geomagnetic and galactic cosmic ray records."