* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Solar Stormwatch

Blobrana · L

Protect the Earth through the web

There are not many websites which literally give you the chance to protect the world.
Yet, if you are keen on spending a few moments of your day defending the Earth from an imminent solar attack, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London would like to hear from you.
Its Solar Stormwatch website highlights the danger of radiation bursts from the Sun - and gives users the chance to help scientists spot Sun storms - known as coronal mass ejections - before they cause damage on Earth.
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Blobrana · L

Scientists Launch Solar Stormwatch To Ask Public For Help In Understanding The Sun

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG), in partnership with the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Zooniverse are launching Solar Stormwatch, a new web project where anyone can help spot and track solar storms and be involved in the latest solar research.
The Sun is much more dynamic than it appears in our sky. Intense magnetic fields churn and pummel the Sun's atmosphere and they store enormous amounts of energy that, when released, hurl billions of tons of material out into space in explosions called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) - or solar storms.
Solar Stormwatch volunteers can spot these storms and track their progress across space towards the Earth. Such storms can be harmful to astronauts in orbit and have the potential to knock out communication satellites, disrupt mobile phone networks and damage power lines. With the public's help, Solar Stormwatch will allow solar scientists to better understand these potentially dangerous storms and help to forecast their arrival time at Earth.
The project uses real data from NASA's STEREO spacecraft, a pair of satellites in orbit around the Sun which give scientists a constant eye on the ever-changing solar surface. The UK has a major input in STEREO, providing the two widest-field instruments, the Heliospheric Imagers, which provide Solar Stormwatch with its data. Each imager has two cameras helping STEREO stare across the 150 million kilometres from the Earth to the Sun.
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