THEMIS Orbits: Nightside Science Configuration

  • Released Thursday, December 14th, 2006
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:55PM
  • ID: 3392

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

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.

Same movie as above but no date slates.

An opening view of the Earth's polar regions and the (simulated) aurora.

An opening view of the Earth's polar regions and the (simulated) aurora.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Same image as above with no date slate.

The camera pulls out from the Earth as we see satellites P3, P4, and P5 zip past.

The camera pulls out from the Earth as we see satellites P3, P4, and P5 zip past.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Same image as above with no date slate.

In this side view (the Sun is to the left), we see the orbits aligned in the nightside of the Earth.

In this side view (the Sun is to the left), we see the orbits aligned in the nightside of the Earth.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Same image as above with no date slate.

The camera moves around to the nightside of the Earth and we see the THEMIS spacecraft, Earth, and Sun in the distance.

The camera moves around to the nightside of the Earth and we see the THEMIS spacecraft, Earth, and Sun in the distance.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Same image as above with no date slate.

The spacecraft continue in their orbits.

The spacecraft continue in their orbits.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Same image as above with no date slate.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

SSCweb ephemerides (A.K.A. SSCweb)
Ephemeris NASA/GSFC Space Physics Data Facility 2008/02/10T00:00:00 - 2008/02/20T00:00:00

Satellite ephemerides

Dataset can be found at: http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov

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