Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/04/2012 - 10:23
Forums
Space Weather Monitoring on the Antarctic Plateau 2013

Tim,

These are questions from my Earth/Space Science classes:

What kind of data do you actually get from the monitoring stations? I read that you are trying to find potential disturbances between the magnetic fields of Earth and the Sun, but what are you specifically looking for? Is there any kind of baseline to know if the results of the data are typical?

Thanks, Craig Kasunic Oil City High School Science Teacher

Thu, 12/13/2012 - 05:02

Tim Spuck

Craig,I know I spoke with your classes the other day, but thought I would respond here as well. We have two magnetometers that measure fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field, instruments that measure differences in radio emissions coming through the Earth's ionosphere, an all-sky camera to monitor aurora, and instruments that measure local weather conditions. The team is in the process of establishing what we would consider "normal" so there is a fair bit of work to do looking for patterns in the data.
Thanks again for the question.
Tim