Parker Science Result animations

Animation of solar windCredit: NASA/GSFC/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez Movie of data from the WISPR instrument on Parker Solar Probe. Credit: Naval Research Laboratory/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Graphic showing the orbit of STEREO, Earth and Parker Solar Probe around the Sun. Its from the STEREO webpage. Credit: NASA STEREO images of the solar wind that Parker Solar Probe sampled, but using running difference (i.e. image processing to enhance the smaller features). Credit:NASA/STEREO/Angelos Vourlidas. Cartoon of the structures we see in WISPR and STEREO to scale when they get to Earth and compress Earth's magnetic fields. Credit: NASA/Larry Kepko Movie of STEREO images of the solar wind that Parker Solar Probe sampled, with an icon representing Parker's path through the field of view. Credit: NASA/STEREO/Angelos Vourlidas. The Sun, in UV light, during Parker Solar Probe’s first closest approach in its first orbit. White magnetic field lines are shown originating in a small coronal hole; kinks, based on real Parker measurements, show the switchbacks observed during the encounter.Credit: Imperial College/Ronan Laker/GONG/NASA/HelioPy/PFSSPy Parker Solar Probe flew through several ‘switchbacks’ – tubes of fast solar wind emerging from coronal holes in the Sun’s upper atmosphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez The Sun’s atmosphere in ultraviolet light during Parker Solar Probe’s first perihelion; bright spots show regions where magnetic energy is released to heat the plasma. Credit: NASA/SDO Extreme Ultraviolet images from NASA's STEREO SECCHI EUVI instrument showing the Sun's hot corona from November 9-11, 2018.Credit: NASA/STEREO One of the fastest CMEs in years was captured by the STEREO COR1 telescopes on August 1, 2010. This movie, combining COR1-Ahead images with the simultaneous Helium II 304 Angstrom images from the STEREO EUVI telescope, shows the rapid explosion of material outward, followed by a slower eruption of a polar crown prominence from another part of the Sun. This CME is seen to be heading towards Earth at speeds well over 1000 kilometers per second.Credit: NASA/STEREO Running Difference movie from NASA's SECCHI COR 2 imager on STEREO A. This shows a coronal mass ejection lifting off on the left side of the video that Parker Solar Probe flew threw in November 11-12 2018.Credit: NASA/STEREO This clip shows the particle flow around the Earth as the CME strikes. Full movie at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3902Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Parker Solar Probe plasma and fields data from November 11-12, 2018 that measured a Coronal Mass Ejection. Credit: NASA Parker Solar Probe Mission, the SWEAP team led by J. Kasper, and the FIELDS team led by S. Bale for use of data. Here's a view of the Sun, from the point of view of a fleet of Sun-observing spacecraft - SOHO, TRACE, and RHESSI. The time scales of the data samples in this visualization range from 6 hours to as short as 12 seconds and the display rate varies throughout the movie. The region and event of interest is the solar flare over solar active region AR9906 on April 21, 2002. In this visualization, black corresponds to no (current) instrument coverage.Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. A special thanks to all those who contributed data and advice without which this product would not have been possible (in no particular order): Alexander Kosovichev (Stanford University), Todd Hoeksema (Stanford University), Steele Hill (L-3 Communications Analytics Corporation/GSFC), Brian R. Dennis (NASA/GSFC), Peter T. Gallagher (L-3 Communications Analytics Corporation/GSFC), Joseph B. Gurman (NASA/GSFC), Nathan Rich (Interferometrics Inc./NRL), Bernhard Fleck (NASA/GSFC), Craig DeForest (SwRI), Philip Scherrer (Stanford University) Combined visualization of 3D magnetic field lines, and proton flux for energies above 50 MeV (the GOES 2nd channel) fopr the July 14, 2000 "Bastille Day" flare/CME.. The > 50 MeV flux is shown as color contours. The figure in the leftmost column display the low coronal portion (out to about 4RS) of the simulation, the middle frames display the corona to about 17RS, and the rightmost frame show the domain to 1 AU (the green sphere on the righthand edge of these images shows the Earth’s position. Credit: Linker, Jon A. and Caplan, Ronald M., Schwadron, Nathan and Gorby, Matthew and Downs, Cooper and Torok, Tibor and Lionello, Roberto and Wijaya, Janvier, Coupled MHD-Focused Transport Simulations for Modeling Solar Particle Events, Journal of Physics Conference Series, 1225, 012007, 2019, doi = 10.1088/1742-6596/1225/1/012007 Enlil model of the 2019 April 20 CME propagating out to PSP. Left panels show modeled densities and right panels show the difference between the modeled density with the CME and the ambient density in the background solar wind. An animation is available. The video starts on 2019-04-01T02:01 and ends at 2019-05-01T00:02. The real-time video duration is 29 s.Credit: Schwadron, N. A. et al., ApJS, in Press, 2019 Composite of the PSP/WISPR Inner and Outer cameras during the first solar encounter (Nov 2018). The location and relative size of the Sun is shown to scale, remaining just outside of the field of view and allowing WISPR to observe solar outflow and coronal mass ejections. Many stars, and the Milky Way, can be see crossing the images. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL This image, taken from [the movie above] highlights the location of the very faint dust trail we observe following Phaethon’s orbit. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL The same image sequence as [above] but with additional processing to reduce the brightness of stars and enhance fainter features. Here we are able to see more clearly the very faint dust trail – the Geminds – following the orbit of asteroid (3200) Phaethon. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL Little more than a year into its mission, Parker Solar Probe has returned gigabytes of data on the Sun and its atmosphere. The very first science from the Parker mission is just beginning to be shared, and five researchers presented new findings from the mission at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Dec. 11, 2019. Their research hints at the processes behind both the Sun's continual outflow of material — the solar wind — and more infrequent solar storms that can disrupt technology and endanger astronauts, along with new insight into space dust that creates the Geminids meteor shower.Speakers:Nicholeen Viall - Research Astrophysicist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterTim Horbury - Professor of Physics, Imperial College LondonKelly Korreck - Astrophysicist, Head of Science Operations for SWEAP Suite, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsNathan Schwadron - Presidential Chair, Norman S. and Anna Marie Waite Professor, University of New HampshireKarl Battams - Computational Scientist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Related pages

Image #1: First results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe show flips in the direction of the magnetic field, which flows out from the Sun, embedded in the solar wind and detected by the FIELDS instrument. During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the Sun. These switchbacks, along with other observations of the solar wind, may provide early clues about what mechanisms heat the solar corona and accelerate the solar wind. Credit: NASA/Goddard/CIL Image #2: Flips in the Sun's magnetic fields — dubbed "switchbacks" — appear to be a very common phenomenon in the solar wind flow inside the orbit of Mercury, and last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over NASA's Parker Solar Probe during its first year in orbit. Yet they seem not to be present any further from the Sun – we would have no way of spotting them without flying directly through that solar wind the way Parker has. Credit: NASA/Goddard/CIL Image #3: NASA's Parker Solar Probe observed a slow solar wind flowing out from the small coronal hole — the long, thin black spot seen on the left side of the Sun in this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory — on October 27, 2018. While scientists have long known that fast solar wind streams flow from coronal holes near the poles, they have not yet conclusively identified the source of the Sun's slow solar wind. Credit: NASA/SDO Image #4: This movie shows six years of observations of the Sun as observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Solar particles outline loops on the horizon, illustrating the constant dance of the Sun's magnetic fields. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO Image #5: The WISPR instrument on NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured imagery of the constant outflow of material from the Sun during its close approach to the Sun in November 2018. Credit: NASA/NRL/APL Image #6: The WISPR image on NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured imagery of the constant outflow of material from the Sun during its close approach to the Sun in April 2019. Credit: NASA/NRL/APL Image #7: The Sun is surrounded by a ring of dust, made of the cosmic crumbs of collisions that formed planets, asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies billions of years ago. On clear nights, observers from Earth can see a hint of this dust — known as Zodiacal dust or "false dawn," — as a concentrated illuminated cloud appearing over the horizon, scattering the Sun's light back to us in the dark. New results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe have observed for the first time the way the dust begins to thin out near the Sun, evaporating in the intense heat. As Parker gets closer it may well see the dust disappear completely.Image credit: ESO/Y.Beletsky Image #8: Artist interpretation of a dust-free zone around the Sun. Credit: NASA Goddard Image #9: Parker's ISOIS energetic particle instruments have measured several never-before-seen events so small that all trace of them is lost before they reach Earth. These instruments have also measured a rare type of particle burst with a particularly high ratio of heavier elements — suggesting that both types of events may be more common than scientists previously thought. Solar energetic particle events are important to understand as they can arise suddenly and lead to space weather conditions near Earth that can be potentially harmful to astronauts. Unraveling the sources, acceleration, and transport of solar energetic particles will help us better protect humans in space in the future.Credit: NASA/Goddard Image #10: One of the greatest threats from the Sun — to astronauts and the satellites that provide GPS maps, cell phone service, and internet access — are high-energy particles that erupt from the Sun in bursts. Top: On Nov. 17, 2018 — the 321st day of that year, as seen on the bottom axis — the ISʘIS instrument aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe observed a burst of high-energy protons, each with more than 1 million electron-volts of energy. The warmer colors (yellow, orange, red) represent an increase in the number of these high-energy particles hitting the ISʘIS sensors. (Time in days is given on the horizontal axis, and particle energy on the vertical axis.) Bottom: An artist’s representation of one of these energetic particle events.Credit: NASA/Princeton Image #11: During Parker Solar Probe’s first two orbits, ISʘIS detected many small energetic particle events, solar bursts during which the rates of particles streaming out of the sun increased rapidly. On ISʘIS, the Epi-Lo instrument measures particles in the tens of thousands of electron-volts, while Epi-Hi measures particles with millions to hundreds of millions of electron-volts. (For reference, the electricity in your house is 120 volts.) Here, data from orbits 1 (left) and 2 (right) show the ISʘIS particle count rates overlaid as color strips along the black line that represents the trajectory of Parker Solar Probe. The lower energy (“Lo”) rates can be seen on the inside of the track, while the higher energy (“Hi”) rates run on the outside of the track. Both the width and color correspond to the measured rates, such that large red bars indicate the biggest bursts, when the sun released the most particles in a short amount of time.Credit: NASA/Princeton/APL Image #12: The top panel shows a schematic of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), during which a burst of material with as much mass as Lake Michigan is ejected from the Sun. These can pose a threat to astronauts and space satellites, but ISʘIS scientists discovered that tiny energetic particles rush ahead of the ejected mass, providing advance warning of the incoming threat. Image #13: The bottom panel shows an ISʘIS time-series spectrogram of proton fluxes from EPI-Lo (top) and the magnetic field measurements (bottom) during an observed CME. The energetic particles preceded the CME, reaching Parker Solar Probe nearly a day before the ejected mass.Credit: NASA/Princeton/APL Image #14: On Epi-Lo, 80 tiny telescopes are looking in 80 different directions, and one of those was punctured by a dust grain when Parker Solar Probe was at its closest approach to the sun. The purple arrow shows the approximate arrival direction of the dust grain, and the bottom panel shows where during the second orbit collision occurred.Credit: NASA/Princeton NASA to Present First Parker Solar Probe Findings in Media TeleconferenceNASA will announce the first results from the Parker Solar Probe mission, the agency's mission to "touch" the Sun, during a media teleconference at 1:30 pm EST on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019.Parker has traveled closer to our star than any human-made object before it. The teleconference will discuss the first papers from the principal investigators of the mission’s four instruments. The papers will be published online Wednesday in Nature at 1 pm EST.The teleconference audio will stream live at:https://www.nasa.gov/nasaliveParticipants in the call are: •Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington•Stuart Bale, principal investigator of the FIELDS instrument at the University of California, Berkeley•Justin Kasper, principal investigator of the SWEAP instrument at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor•Russ Howard, principal investigator of the WISPR instrument at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington•David McComas, principal investigator of the ISʘIS instrument at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Related pages