The Sun-Earth Connection and Geomagnetism: How the Sun, space weather, and Earth's magnetic field influence our planet's environment
A Windows to the Universe Workshop presented on July 24, 2006, at the
6th Annual Environmental Health Sciences Summer Institute for K-12 Educators
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Science Park - Research Division at Smithville
This workshop covered three major topic areas:
- magnetism, space weather, and Sun-Earth connections
- ultraviolet (UV) "light" - its emission by the Sun, interactions with Earth's atmosphere, and effects on people and Earth's environment
- radiation - types, sources, units of measurement, effects
The workshop included several hands-on activities.
List of Hands-on Activities
Write-ups of the hands-on activities conducted at the workshop can be found at the links below:
- Magnetic Levitation (in Spanish)
- Magnetometer (in Spanish)
- Magnetometer Extensions - Prospecting for Iron Ore & Seafloor Spreading (in Spanish)
- Terrabagga (in Spanish)
- Standing Wave Demonstration
- Atmosphere Graphing Activities
- Temperature and the Earth's Atmosphere
- Reading Graphs with a Logarithmic Scale
- Graphs and the Composition of Earth’s Thermosphere
- Student Worksheet
- Thermosphere Constituents (interactive graph)
- Graphs and the Composition of Earth’s Ionosphere
- Student Worksheet
- Ionosphere Constituents (interactive graph)
Images, Animations, and Interactives shown during the Presentations
Most of the images, animations, and interactives shown as part of the presentations at the workshop are available online at the links listed below:
- Radiation
- Particle radiation
- How Much Radiation Are You Exposed to Every Year?
- How Can Radiation Hurt a Living Cell?
- What are Lethal Levels of Radiation?
- Astronauts and Space Radiation
- How Dangerous are Solar Protons Events to Astronauts?
- The Arrival of High Energy Solar Protons
- Aurora
- Charged Particle Motion in Earth's Magnetosphere (exploratour)
- Ultraviolet (UV) "Light" and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Space Weather and the Sun-Earth Connection
- Earth beside Sunspot
- Rotating Sun with Sunspots (animation)
- Coronal Loops in the Sun's atmosphere - TRACE spacecraft image
- Horseshoe magnet in Sun
- Prominence size comparison with Earth
- CME animation - SOHO coronagraph
- Earth globe with Magnetic Field Lines
- Bar Magnet & Compass interactive
- Earth Magnetic Field and Compass interactive
- Earth Magnetosphere diagram
- Earth Plasmasphere diagram
- Earth radiation belts diagram
Links to References
Last modified July 22, 2006 by Randy Russell.
