Reconnection Fronts - When Satellites Align...

  • Released Thursday, September 26, 2013
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In July of 2012, a fleet of spacecraft studying Earth's magnetosphere were in an ideal alignment to detect a particle flow predicted in magnetospheric models. The grey mesh shell structure represents the approximate location of the magnetopause.

In this visualization, THEMIS, ARTEMIS (in orbit around the Moon), and Geotail, as well as the particle detectors on the GOES-13 and GOES-15 satellites achieved a good alignment around 09:45 on July 3, 2012 to detect one of the particle flows predicted by magnetospheric models.

A polar view of the satellite alignments, with and without satellite labels. The visualization slows around the time of the event at July 3, 2012 09:45GMT.

The satellite alignment with a view moving from a point on the dayside of the Earth and orbiting around to a view beyond the orbit of the Moon. In the process, the camera passes through the magnetosphere.

For More Information

See http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/several-nasa-spacecraft-track-energy-through-space

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, September 26, 2013.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.

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