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By James Pugsley
Astronomy North
(YELLOWKNIFE, NWT) After four decades of mystery,
four years of groundwork and one very cool rocket
launch, Canada's northern communities are set
to take part in an out-of-this world aurora experiment.
The THEMIS
project, which stands for Time
History and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms,
is the biggest aurora-watching experiment of its kind
and the first to involve so many northern
communities in Canada and the United States.
Five high-flying NASA satellites, along with 20 all-sky
cameras at ground
stations across the North (including four cameras
in the Northwest Territories), will spend 24 months
collecting valuable data for THEMIS, an experiment
arguably as impressive as the aurora
itself.
NASA
| COVERING
CANADA • Cameras set up across the
North will send data to the University
of Calgary's THEMIS
Canada team. |
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Led by NASA, the University of California Berkley,
the
Canadian Space Agency and
the University of Calgary, this $200 Million
quest will explore the causes of auroral substorms,
one of the magnetosphere's best kept secrets.
Substorms
are intense surges in geomagnetic activity easily
observed when northern skies fill with bright,
colourful auroras.
And
while the source of auroras is well understood,
the physics behind substorm activity are not.
Auroras occur when charged solar particles are
trapped by
Earth's magnetic field and directed towards
the magnetic poles where they collide
with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere.
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Auroras
can happen at any time, but how and where are auroral
substorms triggered? To
search for an answer, scientists will look for fascinating
fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field using five
strategically placed satellites.
And as the sky erupts with light, 16
Canadian
stations, including NWT cameras in Inuvik,
Fort
Simpson, Lac
De Gras and Fort
Smith, will simultaneously monitor the oncoming
light show.
Each
station is equipped with a magnetometer, imager and
a GPS unit for precision timing. Researchers will
be able to communicate with the camera via the Internet
or through a satellite modem.
Of course, it's not just the gizmos and gadgets that
make this experiment happen, there's a strong local
connection too.
Volunteers from across the NWT and over a dozen other
northern communities will spend the next two years
maintaining the ground stations, enabling the THEMIS
Canada team at the University of Calgary, led by associate
professor of physics and astronomy Eric Donovan, to
solve one of the aurora's greatest mysteries.
Thawing frozen gear, maintaining access to the web
and keeping curious wildlife away will are just a
few of the small but significant tasks required at
each of the ground stations.
By getting involved, NWT skywatchers will be making
a contribution to NASA's ongoing efforts to protect
satellites and astronauts from harmful space weather.
And whether you're part of the experiment or not,
it'll sure be a lot of fun to watch.
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