Written By Nicole Yang

VENTURES

written by NICOLE YANG

Credit Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Space Weather Monitors: Science to Students

Invisible layers of ions and electrons are suspended in the ionosphere, a layer of atmosphere about 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Through the Space Weather Monitor program, hundreds of inexpensive ionospheric monitors have been distributed to high school and younger students so that they can detect the effects of these ions and electrons. Designed to interest these students in atmospheric science, the Space Weather Monitor program has reached out to students around the world, primarily to those in underdeveloped countries. The Stanford Solar Center developed this program as a research project of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling. The goal was to develop electronic receivers inexpensive and easy enough for students and teachers to use. The instruments were inspired by an earlier version developed by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). But the AAVSO methods and equipment were too sophisticated for high school students to utilize. “There was no way that students could work through the necessary Fourier transforms,” said Deborah Scherrer, education director at the Stanford Solar Center. Two years of collaboration between a high school teacher with experience in

stanford scientific

electronics and a team of scientists in Stanford’s Solar Observatories Group led to the development of the Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) monitor. They modified the AAVSO version to a hand-held instrument that high school and college students could use. Thanks to additional funding from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a collaborative effort between NASA and the European Space Agency, and from NASA and the IHY (International Heliophysical Year), the Space Weather Monitor program has distributed 250 monitors throughout the world. Stanford distributes the preassembled and pre-tuned monitors at no cost primarily to underdeveloped countries or disadvantaged students in the United States. “The kids love it, and the teachers love it,” said Scherrer. “Two monitors are scheduled to be sent to South Korea and Mongolia just today.”

Detecting Ionospheric Disturbances

Students and teachers use SID monitors to measure disturbances in the ionosphere caused by the Sun. SID monitors measure the signal strength of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves that bounce off the Earth’s ionosphere. VLF waves have very long wavelenths of 7.5 miles and repeatedly bounce between the ionosphere and the

A bright and expansive coronal mass ejection unfurled itself on January 24, 2007. Earth’s surface. Solar activity affects the ionosphere, which changes the signal strength of these VLF waves. By detecting VLF waves, SID monitors can reveal changes in the Earth’s ionosphere. One type of disturbance that students can observe with these instruments is solar flares. Solar flares are intense releases of energy that originate in the Sun’s atmosphere. The massive amounts of X-rays and gamma rays emitted by these solar flares dramatically increase the ionization of the Earth’s ionosphere. This increased ionization produces a sharp peak in VLF signal strength, much like earthquakes producing a sudden increase on a seismograph. These data can then be compared by students to satellite data from the GOES Database. NASA also provides near real-time images from SOHO and a variety of satellites and ground-based observatories, presented at its Sun Earth Media Viewer webpage. “By looking at satellite images, students can track exactly which sunspot caused their solar flare. The strength of the program is that everything is easy to understand and follow conceptually,” said Scherrer.

Promoting around the Globe

Reaching Out and Connecting

The main goal of the program is to excite high school and younger students about science. Scherrer explains, “Learning how to think scientifically is a major eye-opener. And owning your own monitor and collecting your own data can significantly increase interest.” Although there are difficulties in measuring the long-term impacts of the program, such as whether students actually proceed to study science in college and beyond, short-term impacts measured in terms of student interest levels have been “very high.” Student research projects utilizing SID monitors have won major science competitions. Leandra Merola, a high school student at South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York, undertook a three-month research project to study the sunrise and sunset signatures collected by her SID monitor. Leandra captured data for several months and analyzed how solarinduced changes to the ionosphere effected the sunrise and sunset signatures of VLF waves propagating through the ionosphere. Her project was entered in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search competition, and she won third place out of about 120 students at the Regional Round of the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.

The Stanford Solar Center also maintains a centralized database where high school and community college students can add their data and view data collected by other students. Mimicking the collaborative nature of the scientific research community, students are highly encouraged to team up with each other as data collected at each location is unique. The SID blog serves as a central communication source for all of those interested in the program, from the director of solar section at the Astronomy Society of Southern Africa to a second-year science teacher in Philadelphia to a high school student working as a research assistant at the Alabama A&M University. After approximately 60 more monitors are distributed to teachers and students around the world, most efforts will be channeled into providing teachers with the correct resources and putting them

The Stanford Solar Center’s educational program engages students to study the science of the Sun

A bright solar flare is captured on May 2, 1998. in touch with scientists. In addition to word-of-mouth efforts, informing teachers of this opportunity occurs via IHY educational outreach representatives and the IHY website. The program also has been introduced at a conference organized by the National Science Teachers Association. With the help of Stanford alumni, the education materials accompanying the monitors has been translated into the six official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. “We have the opportunity to reach students in every country of the world,” said Scherrer. The Stanford Solar Center hopes to place monitors in each of the 192 member states of the United Nations, fostering appreciationfostering appreciation for science throughout the global community.

NICOLE YANG is a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering. She thinks the solar system is quite amazing, especially since the Earth is actually a relatively small planet.

To Learn More

For more information on the program, visit the website http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Homepage (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/) provides a good introduction to basic facts about the Sun, as well as real-time images and data. The Yohkoh Solar Observatory website (http://www.lmsal.com/SXT/homepage.html) also contains recent satellite images and movies.

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