Sun  ID: 3392

THEMIS Orbits: Nightside Science Configuration

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on December 14, 2006
In the latter phase of the mission, the five THEMIS spacecraft will travel on five co-aligned elliptical orbits with their apogee on the nightside of the Earth. From there, they will sample the particle and electromagnetic wave environment along the magnetotail. The dates in this visualization are based on an ephemeris assuming a launch date of January 20, 2007. The five satellites are represented by colors: red=P1, green=P2, cyan=P3, blue=P4, magenta=P5
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This movie starts from a view of the aurora (simulated) over the north polar region and pulls outward to show the THEMIS spacecraft sampling the region of space 'downwind' from the Earth.
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Same movie as above but no date slates.
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An opening view of the Earth's polar regions and the (simulated) aurora.
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Same image as above with no date slate.
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The camera pulls out from the Earth as we see satellites P3, P4, and P5 zip past.
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Same image as above with no date slate.
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In this side view (the Sun is to the left), we see the orbits aligned in the nightside of the Earth.
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Same image as above with no date slate.
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The camera moves around to the nightside of the Earth and we see the THEMIS spacecraft, Earth, and Sun in the distance.
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Same image as above with no date slate.
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The spacecraft continue in their orbits.
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Same image as above with no date slate.

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Animator
Vassilis Angelopoulos (University of California at Berkeley): Scientist
David G. Sibeck (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3392

Mission:
THEMIS

Data Used:
SSCweb also referred to as: SSCweb ephemerides
Ephemeris - NASA/GSFC Space Physics Data Facility - 2008/02/10T00:00:00 - 2008/02/20T00:00:00
Satellite ephemerides
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
THEMIS Pre-launch

Keywords:
SVS >> Geomagnetic Field
SVS >> Magnetosphere
SVS >> Solar Wind
GCMD >> Location >> Magnetotail
SVS >> THEMIS
NASA Science >> Sun

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0