Space Weather Event: Close-up on the Earth Environment
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
- View full credits
We open with a view from high above the ecliptic plane, at the space between the Sun (left) and the Earth (within the small rectangular box on the right). In the plane of the Earth's orbit, we show a 'slice' of the Enlil model showing the particle density profile of the solar wind (white to yellow for decreasing particle density). The spiral 'rotating water sprinkler' pattern in the density is the Parker spiral (Wikipedia).
We zoom down to the Earth as the CME (orange surface) erupts in the direction of the Earth and move into a position above the Earth's orbital plane with the Earth (geospace) environment in view.
As the particle density enhancement from the CME strikes the Earth, we see the Earth's magnetosphere respond, with the outer, high density surface (red) 'blown away'. This surface location corresponds roughly to the location of the bow shock. The bow shock has not been eliminated, only some of its particles have been depleted, to be carried off in the CME and solar wind. As the densest material of the CME passes (orange surface), plasma from the CME continues to flow by the Earth, stretching the magnetosphere into a long, thin structure behind the Earth.
The magnetosphere slowly recovers from the 'impact', and regions that can confine higher particle densities reform - the red surfaces return. But not for long as the rarefaction (Wikipedia) behind the CME reaches the Earth. This lower density region provides fewer particles to repopulate the magnetosphere and makes it easier for particles confined in the magnetosphere to 'leak' out into the solar wind.
For the BATS-R-US model, the isosurface colors are: red=20 AMUs per cubic centimeter, yellow=10.0 AMUs per cubic centimeter, light blue=1.0 AMUs per cubic centimeter, and blue=0.1 AMUs per cubic centimeter. An AMU corresponds to about the mass of a hydrogen atom, the dominant component of the solar wind.
This visualization is part of a series of visualizations on space weather modeling.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC), the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) and the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil (GMU).
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Animators
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
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Scientist
- Michael Hesse (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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JPL/Horizon Orbital Ephemerides
ID: 597Planetary ephemerides
This dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons
See all pages that use this dataset -
SSCweb ephemerides (SSCweb)
ID: 538Satellite ephemerides
This dataset can be found at: http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov
See all pages that use this dataset -
Enlil Heliospheric Model (Enlil Heliospheric Model)
ID: 685MHD solar wind simulation
See all pages that use this dataset -
BATS-R-US Magnetosphere Model
ID: 686MHD Magnetospheric simulation
See all pages that use this dataset
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.
Related Pages
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ID: 4188 Visualization
Comparative Magnetospheres: A Noteworthy Coronal Mass Ejection
Read moreIn an effort to understand and predict the impact of space weather events on Earth, the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, routinely runs computer models of the many historical events. These model runs are then compared to actual data to determine ways to improve the model, and therefore forecasts of the impacts of future space weather events.In mid-December of 2006, the Sun erupted with a bright flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) that launched particles Earthward. While not the brightest or largest event observed, its impact on Earth was substantial, requiring some effort to protect satellites (ESA: Reacting to a solar flare).The visualization presented here is a CCMC run of a BATS-R-US model simulating the impact of this event on Earth. Here, lines are used to represent the 'flow direction' of magnetic field of the solar wind impacting Earth, as well as the effects on Earth's geomagnetic field. A 'cut-plane' through the data illustrates the changes in the particle density in the solar wind and magnetosphere. The color of the data represents a logarithmic scaling of density, with red as the highest (1000 particles per cubic centimeter) down to blue (0.01 particles per cubic centimeter). In this simulation, each frame of the movie corresponds to two minutes of real time.In the movie, we see vertical field lines of magnetic field carried by the solar wind, coming in from the left. As this field, and the plasma carrying it, strike Earth's magnetic field, they bend and reconnect, around the Earth. Some field lines actually reconnect to the polar regions of the Earth, providing a ready flow-path for particles to reach the ionosphere and generate aurora. This interaction between the solar wind and the plasma trapped in Earth's magnetosphere also creates a density enhancement between Earth and the solar wind helping to shield Earth from some of the effects. A lower density wake forms behind Earth (the blue region). There is a circular 'hole' around the Earth which is a gap in the model. ||
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