Questions To Think About

Before starting any activities, try to answer these questions to discover what your ideas are before you start.

• Is the Sun always the same or does it change?
• If the Sun is always changing, how does it change?
• What events on the Sun might occur to influence the space around Earth and its atmosphere?
• How can we determine if some event on the Sun has affected the space around Earth and its atmosphere?

Background Science Activities

Before working directly with the magnetic and radio wave data, it can be useful to learn some more about the concepts in the activities and to have students do some background lessons. Below we provide links to teacher's guides that contain activities to help students understand concepts involved in working directly with magnetometer and sudden ionospheric disturbance monitor data.

"Exploring Magnetism" teacher's guide provides the basics of magnetism, magnetic field lines, and its connection with electricity Exploring Magnetism

"Space Weather Forecast" teacher's guide introduces the Sun, solar activity, and its affects on the Earth SpaceWeatherForecast-v.070507.pdf

The "Student Observation Network (S.O.N.) Tracking a Solar Storm" provides an excellent explanation of what solar storms are and how to detect and identify them. Begin to understand solar storms in the context of NASA missions and find out why many people (including NASA scientists) are so interested in learning more about our relationship with the Sun. NASA's S.O.N. Tracking a Solar Storm

"Space Weather" teacher's guide provides background knowledge for working with the THEMIS magnetometer data: Earth's magnetosphere definitions, a Sun-Earth connection lecture, time zones and Universal Time, the evolution of auroras, and space weather forecasting using geomagnetic indices Space Weather

For teachers - a book with background material for the THEMIS magnetometer program describing the Sun and its influence on Earth's magnetic field. A description of magnetometers is also included in this background guide along with some other topics: THEMIS GEONS guide