Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.
Using measurements gathered by Firefly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators, Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md., hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 370574, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/firefly/#media_group_370574", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "Animations", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 403417, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10647, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10647/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Firefly Beauty Pass", "description": "The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named \"Firefly.\" Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.Using measurements gathered by Firefly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators - Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md. - hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:04.331914-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490204, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010647/Firefly_Beauty_Pass.00302_print.jpg", "filename": "Firefly_Beauty_Pass.00302_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Firefly will pass over a large number of thunderstorms throughout its one year lifetime, and will provide the first simultaneous measurements of lightning and the gamma rays it can produce.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } }, { "id": 403418, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10649, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10649/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Firefly Deployment", "description": "The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named \"Firefly.\" Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.fly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators - Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md. - hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:04.439395-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490234, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010649/Firefly_deploy.00177_print.jpg", "filename": "Firefly_deploy.00177_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Firefly uses a deployable \"boom\" system to stabilize itself in a downlooking configuration, allowing the optical sensors to see lightning occurring below.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } }, { "id": 403419, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10650, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10650/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Firefly in Orbit", "description": "The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named \"Firefly.\" Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.fly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators - Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md. - hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:04.541607-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490242, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010650/Firefly_push.00377_print.jpg", "filename": "Firefly_push.00377_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Beauty shot of Firefly spacecraft in orbit (500 km circular orbit, 45 degrees inclination). Firefly will launch on a Falcon-1e in spring / summer 2011.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } }, { "id": 403420, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10651, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10651/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Radiation Generated in Electric Fields Over Thunderstorms", "description": "The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named \"Firefly.\" Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.fly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators - Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md. - hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:04.640377-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490250, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010651/Pro_Elec_Gamma.00127_print.jpg", "filename": "Pro_Elec_Gamma.00127_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Artist's conception of energetic radiation generated in the intense electric fields over thunderstorms. Gamma rays (pink) are emitted as electrons (blue) and positrons (yellow) gain 100 million times their original energy in the space of 1 millisecond.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } }, { "id": 403421, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10652, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10652/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Firefly Sees Electrons Populate the Radiation Belts", "description": "The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named \"Firefly.\" Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.Although no one knows why, it appears these flashes of gamma rays that were once thought to occur only far out in space near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena are somehow linked to lightning.fly's instruments, Goddard scientist Doug Rowland and his collaborators - Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Siena College, located near Albany, N.Y., and the Hawk Institute for Space Studies in Pocomoke City, Md. - hope to answer what causes these high-energy flashes. In particular, they want to find out if lightning triggers them or if they trigger lightning. Could they be responsible for some of the high-energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, which damage satellites? Firefly is expected to observe up to 50 lightning strokes per day, and about one large TGF every couple days. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:04.728124-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490258, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010652/Firefly_Lines.00095_print.jpg", "filename": "Firefly_Lines.00095_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Secondary electrons that are created in the upper atmosphere can escape to high altitudes, where they are guided by the Earth's magnetic field, and can become stably trapped, bouncing between the hemispheres, and populating the Earth's radiation belts.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 370575, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/firefly/#media_group_370575", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "Edited Features", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 403422, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10645, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10645/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA-led Firefly Mission to Study Lightning", "description": "Somewhere on Earth, there's always a lightning flash. The globe experiences lightning some 50 times a second, yet the details of what initiates this common occurrence and what effects it has on the atmosphere – lightning may be linked to incredibly powerful and energetic bursts called terrestrial gamma ray flashes, or TGFs — remains a mystery. In mid-November, a football-sized mission called Firefly, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, will launch into space to study lightning and these gamma ray flashes from above. The NSF CubeSat program represents a low cost access to space approach to performing high-quality, highly targeted science on a smaller budget than is typical of more comprehensive satellite projects, which have price tags starting at $100 million. The CubeSat Firefly, by focusing its science goals, will carry out its mission in a much smaller package and at a considerably lower cost. The Firefly mission also emphasizes student involvement as part of the ongoing effort to train the next generation of scientists and engineers. Students at Siena College, in Loudonville, N.Y., and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, in Princess Anne, Md., were involved in all phases of the Firefly mission. The window for Firefly launch opens on Nov. 19, 2013, and it is scheduled to launch with 27 other cubesat missions, as well as a NASA experiment called the Total solar irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment, or TCTE, which will continue measurements from space of the total energy output of the sun. || ", "release_date": "2010-09-15T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:05.453663-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 490283, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010600/a010645/G2010-090_Firefly_Teaser_appletv.01002_print.jpg", "filename": "G2010-090_Firefly_Teaser_appletv.01002_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This short teaser video introduces us to the mission of Firefly, a CubeSat built by undergraduate students with the partnership of Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Science Foundation.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1024, "height": 768, "pixels": 786432 } } } ], "extra_data": {} } ] }