MANGO Captures Historic Geomagnetic Storm
The historic May 11, 2024 geomagnetic storm awed aurora watchers in all 50 states, and scientists are actively analyzing data to determine its impacts on our atmosphere. One example is the NSF-supported MANGO network (Mid-latitude All-sky-imaging Network for Geophysical Observations) in the continental US. MANGO is a partnership between SSL, the University of Illinois and […]
FAST Fact Sheet
FAST – Fast Auroral SnapshoT PLANETARY FAST, the second mission in NASA’s Small Explorer Satellite Program (SMEX), was a satellite designed to study Earth’s aurora. This highly successful spacecraft has helped scientists answer fundamental questions about the causes and makeup of the aurora; please see publications or nuggets that have come from analysis of FAST […]
The Bliss Project: Small solar sails could be the next ‘giant leap’ for interplanetary space exploration
Small solar sails could be the next ‘giant leap’ for interplanetary space exploration. The BLISS project brings together researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center and the Space Sciences Laboratory.
Berkeley News: When is an aurora not an aurora?
Phenomena called “Steve” and “picket fence” are masquerading as auroras, graduate student argues. Claire Gasque, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student in physics, has now proposed a physical explanation for these phenomena that is totally different from the processes responsible for the well-known auroras. She has teamed up with researchers at the campus’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) to propose that NASA launch a rocket into the heart of the aurora to find out if she’s correct.
SSL will have a booth at AGU
For the first time, SSL will have its own booth at the Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting, from Monday, December 11, through Thursday, December 14, at the Moscone Center. AGU is expected to have more than 25,000 attendees from over one hundred countries and the theme is Wide Open Science. SSL scientists will be […]
GREECE Fact Sheet
The purpose of the GREECE (Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics-Electrons Correlative Experiment) is to significantly enhance our knowledge of the structure and dynamics of the electron precipitation responsible for the aurora, on both large and small scales, which can ultimately be used to set stronger constraints on models of auroral electrodynamics.
TRICE-2 Fact Sheet
TRICE-2 is exploring magnetic reconnection, the explosive process that allows charged particles from space to stream into Earth’s atmosphere.
TRACERS Fact Sheet
The overarching mission goal of the TRACERS mission is: Connecting the magnetospheric cusp to the magnetopause – discovering how spatial or temporal variations in magnetic reconnection drive cusp dynamics.
Carruthers Observatory Fact Sheet
Carruthers Observatory is studying Earth’s exosphere: what it is, how we observe it, and how it responds to solar influences.
Grotifer Fact Sheet
Grotifer aims to close the many significant science questions that are hampered by the current lack of accurate 3D e-field measurements (e.g., at reconnection).
