ESCAPADE spacecraft are now flying through Earth’s magnetotail
With their instruments now fired up and recording data, the twin ESCAPADE satellites are undertaking a test run before they head to Mars later this year. On Wednesday, Mar. 4, they will plow through a never-explored area around Earth: its distant magnetotail.
CINEMA mission will explore auroras and Earth’s mysterious magnetotail
Much of what we see as auroras near the northern and southern magnetic poles begins as plasma currents in the Earth’s magnetotail. NASA’s CINEMA mission will probe this unexplored region.
Carruthers has reached target orbit between Earth and the Sun
NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory has reached its target orbit at Lagrange Point 1 between the Earth and the Sun.
NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will study Earth’s exosphere
NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory launched this morning. Carruthers is now traveling toward the Sun, around which it will enter solar orbit almost a million miles away from Earth and focus on Earth’s exosphere.
Auroral Acceleration Symposium aims to inspire next generation of space scientists
Symposium in honor of Chuck Carlson encourages new research on data from legacy auroral missions The Auroral Acceleration Symposium in Honor of Charles W. (Chuck) Carlson wrapped up on Thursday, April 10th. The event held at UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club attracted some 65 participants and included 24 talks on topics focusing on satellite and rocket […]
Scientists have spotted unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in the atmosphere. They are struggling to explain them.
The structures were detected by instruments on GOLD that were fabricated at the Space Sciences Laboratory. Additional information regarding the investigation of these structures are detailed in a recent CNN article.
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.