The Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses is a NASA sponsored, multiple-balloon investigation that studies Earth's radiation belts.
Hi! Yes they do. The colours represent the magnetic local time (MLT) of the payload. Unfortunately I don't yet know how to create a single file that just has a position and the current time plotted (not dependent on day or year) which could plot where MLT noon, dusk, dawn, and midnight are. In the mean time I have a stationary circular colour bar. If you click on a colour there you can see what MLT position it corresponds to.
I also included constant lines of L. The L-value represents how far away from the Earth in Earth radii the field line is at the magnetic equator. I noticed that your class is currently studying magnetic fields. Here we use the fact that since the Earth has a dipole(ish) field, particles traveling along a field line and encountering the atmosphere will most likely be found at the poles.
Eventually I hope to include the footprints of Satellites. The footprints that we would show would be the Satellite's magnetic footprints. These magnetic footprints would show where the magnetic field observed at the satellite would travel and intersect with the Earth. This allows us to figure out when our balloons might be seeing the same events that the satellites are observing in space.
Cool! Does the color of the icon mean anything as the flight progresses? How long do the flights last?
ReplyDeleteHi! Yes they do. The colours represent the magnetic local time (MLT) of the payload. Unfortunately I don't yet know how to create a single file that just has a position and the current time plotted (not dependent on day or year) which could plot where MLT noon, dusk, dawn, and midnight are. In the mean time I have a stationary circular colour bar. If you click on a colour there you can see what MLT position it corresponds to.
ReplyDeleteI also included constant lines of L. The L-value represents how far away from the Earth in Earth radii the field line is at the magnetic equator. I noticed that your class is currently studying magnetic fields. Here we use the fact that since the Earth has a dipole(ish) field, particles traveling along a field line and encountering the atmosphere will most likely be found at the poles.
Eventually I hope to include the footprints of Satellites. The footprints that we would show would be the Satellite's magnetic footprints. These magnetic footprints would show where the magnetic field observed at the satellite would travel and intersect with the Earth. This allows us to figure out when our balloons might be seeing the same events that the satellites are observing in space.
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