Tag Archives: jim raines

Listen to Solar Storm Activity in New Sonification Video

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— What does a solar storm sound like? To get an idea, a University of Michigan researcher has created a “sonification” of measurements from two spacecraft during the most recent storm. Take a listen in this video.

The researcher who created it is Robert Alexander, a University of Michigan design science doctoral student. Alexander is a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining. (more…)

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Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The sodium and oxygen particles the blistering solar wind kicks up are the primary components of Mercury’s wispy atmosphere, or “exosphere,” the new findings assert. Through interacting with the solar wind, they become charged in a mechanism that’s similar to the one that generates the Aurora Borealis on Earth. (more…)

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