________ ______ _ ______ ___ ____ __ _ /_ __/ / ___ __ / / __ \ | / / __/ / _ )__ __/ / /__ / /_(_)__ / / / _ \/ -_) / // / /_/ / |/ / _/ / _ / // / / / -_) __/ / _ \ /_/ /_//_/\__/ \___/\____/|___/___/ /____/\_,_/_/_/\__/\__/_/_//_/ -the newsletter* of NASA's Radio JOVE Project "Planetary Radio Astronomy for Schools" * This newsletter is best viewed using a fixed-width font such as Courier. This will allow the logo above and tables etc. to be aligned properly. DECEMBER 1999 ISSUE *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Visit our Web Site: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov Email Radio JOVE at: rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* CONTENTS 1. Radio JOVE in the News 2. Feedback 3. A Summary of Recent RJ Observing Results 4. Keep in Touch 5. Upcoming Jupiter Storms for December 6. Radio JOVE at a Glance 7. Acknowledgments 8. Subscription Information 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Radio JOVE in the News by Leonard Garcia, RITSS/GSFC A team of students from Lexington Traditional Magnet Schools made headlines as they prepared to listen for Jovian radio bursts with their Radio JOVE kit. Wendell Salmons, Chad Rousey and their students were interviewed by a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader. The students demonstrated the 20.1 MHz receiver they had built and the dual-dipole antennas. A local television news station, WKYT, also was on hand to tape a story about the students after their successful observing night. The night of October 22rd the students, teachers and parents headed out to set up their observing station in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky on a farm far from any electrical interference. They got out there early enough to enjoy a cook-out as well. A Radio JOVE tailgate party!=20 The observing continued into the morning of the 23rd. Meanwhile at several other sites around the country members of other Radio JOVE teams were also observing. Jupiter did not disappoint but came through very strong and clear, surprising even long-time Jupiter observers in its intensity. Congratulations to the students at the Lexington Traditional Magnet School for their great success in building and testing the electronics and antennas and in observing Jupiter's radio bursts. Congratulations and thanks also go out to their teachers, Wendell Salmons, Chad Rousey and to Dave Sublette for lending his engineering experience to the construction of the equipment and analysis of the data and to all of the parents. We have included in this issue of The JOVE Bulletin the students impression of this experience and more details on the October 23rd Jupiter radio storm. A copy of the article from the Lexington Herald-Leader is available from their website at http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/ 100899/statedocs/08radiojove.htm We received a videotape copy of the interview from WKYT-TV news and made it available at http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/vc/mm_exhibits.htm The copy on the website had to be considerably compressed to bring it down to manageable size for viewing on the web and there are some distortions in the video clip as a result. Thanks to WKYT for permission to post the copy of their tape. 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 Feedback Here are some personal experiences from the Radio JOVE team at the Lexington Traditional Magnet School in Lexington, Kentucky. Project Radio JOVE By Amy G. Lloyd Have you ever listened to a planet's radio signals before? How about staying up from 6:00 PM until 5:00 AM? I agreed to this and more when I got chosen to participate in Project Radio JOVE. In doing Project Radio JOVE I learned all about radio emissions from different stars and planets, including the Sun and one of the Galilean Moons, Io. These emissions sounded very much like static and rocks hitting a tin roof over and over again. This project was very educational, but at the same time, fun. This is something that even my brother, who's currently in high school, wouldn't have had the opportunity to do. I really enjoyed participating in this experiment, and hope to take part in something like this again. Thank you very much for offering this wonderful opportunity to me. Radio JOVE By Nicholas Swisher I was lucky. I was lucky to get to participate in "Project Radio JOVE". At our school the only way to to be in it would be to be in Mr. Rousey's science class, which I was not, or have Mr. Salmons for Tech Ed. Luckily, I had Mr. Salmons, and after reading his flyer on the subject of intercepting radio waves and building a telescope, I excitedly signed up. Luck struck me again and I was one of the randomly selected students to be a part of "Project Radio JOVE," which would affect the rest of my life. Even now I still look back on that luck that I had. When we first started meeting for the project after school, I soon learned that what we would be doing would require precise work, and then a lot of luck because of weather conditions that would be good for our data collecting. We spent the first two sessions going over the theory and by the third session were starting the construction. Already we were being warned of the real possibility of failure, but I don't think anybody was thinking about that. By the time we finished our radio telescope, we had learned that the ideal time to commence with our project would be on a Saturday morning, between 2 and 4 a.m. This fact alone already had many people quite excited, but we worked around it. If that would be what it took, we would do it. Soon it came time to test our creation on the football field behind our school. By this time the media was interested in our work as the newspaper came to interview us. After the telescope was set up we answered their questions left and right, and we knew the facts. We were filled with joy when we were able to hear WWV at 20 MHz. However, the big morning was looming in all our heads when we were finished. Would it work? We were dying to know. The moment snuck up on us as we were suddenly heading out to Mr. Salmons farm in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. We were very very cold standing outside, yet we knew the payoff would be very much worth it. We nervously waited outside, drinking hot chocolate. We were soon summoned into the camper truck. That was when we heard it. Large S and L bursts going off and on several times. We knew what to listen for and it was right in front of us. We huddled around our receiver smiling at each other. It had worked. We had just gotten confirmation from NASA of our success. We rushed out and told our parents and they were overjoyed as well. Sadly it was soon time to go, and many people got up and left. I did not want to leave. I stayed around the receiver until the action died down, and very tired, I left after saying goodbye to Mr. Rousey and Mr. Salmons. On the way back I silently reflected on my great luck that I got to participate in Project Radio JOVE. This experience was opening up new horizons, as I am now writing about the project for NASA. What awaits me next, I do not know. I will just hope the freak luck that was with me at the beginning of the project will aid me again when another opportunity arises. My Experience in the Radio JOVE Project By Nazrana Karim At first, when I heard about the Radio JOVE project, I thought it would be interesting to listen to storms on Jupiter. I didn't really think I would be chosen. We had to meet after school two days a week to construct the radio telescope. It wasn't that hard, but we put a lot of effort into it and we built a great antenna. We put the antenna up twice for the media and once for the real thing. The day of the Radio JOVE was awesome. We had a party and then, at 2:00 AM, we went out to Mr. Salmons' farm to listen to Jupiter. I can't exactly describe the sound. It was like a hurricane - only there were outbursts and explosions. I had a great time and I realize that an opportunity like this only comes along once in a lifetime. Dear NASA, When I first heard about this project I was thrilled to know LTMS got to do this. I got chosen and I was so excited! I got to hear signals from a distant planet. This was a once in a lifetime chance and I will never forget it. I can't believe I made history. Sincerely, Adam Humphrey 6th grader L.T.M.S. Lexington, KY Hi! I'm Will Mustian part of the Radio JOVE Team. This experience was awesome. It is an experience that will last me a lifetime. What we did is we went to Mt. Sterling Kentucky and set up the telescope. The noise that the Radio JOVE Team heard was static and cracks and pops. I learned that to do a big thing like a Radio Telescope you have to have a ton of teamwork. I also learned how much of a help teachers like Mr. Salmons and Mr. Rowsey really are. Dave Sublett was also a huge help.=20 I want to thank everyone including the other members who made the Radio Telescope such a success. Radio JOVE By: Elizabeth Stager My experience doing the radio telescope was tiring, but really exciting. I love doing it so much that I'm thinking about getting an amateur radio license. It was really tiring because I had to get up at 1:30 AM Saturday morning to 4:00 AM. At first it seemed really boring because we had to learn about the radio. When it got to where we were doing the action it got really exciting. I got to measure, tape, drill, and glue. Most of all I got to help assemble it. I got to meet people I didn't know and now they are some of my best friends. I had the chance to try a new experience. I found out about a lot of things I didn't know before. To be honest I didn't want it to end. I was having so much fun and then it ended. It went by so quickly. I'm still sad about it. I also worried about it because the night before Iheard how much trouble we might have because of a storm nearby. Mr. Salmons let us talk to a friend of his in Minnesota on the radio that he had. I got to hear some Morse code. I could write forever but I'm going to stop here because I know you have tons of other letters to read. All I am going to say is that I am incredibly lucky to have been chosen. THANKS!!!! By Matthew Webster While participating in the Radio JOVE project I learned many interesting facts. I learned about the electromagnetic spectrum which consists of electricity, radio, and TV waves, infrared rays, visible light, x-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays. I also learned that white light is made of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors can be broken up when put through a prism. While in JOVE I also learned about the ionosphere, which is part of the earth's atmosphere, where electrically charged particles make it so that people can transmit radio waves across the entire planet. Something else I thought was interesting is that all electromagnetic waves have frequencies, travel at the speed of light, and have wavelengths. I had lots of fun and good experiences while working on the project. Some of my favorites were waiting for the time to do the experiment. During this time we all got to know each other better and have fun together. Another very exciting moment was actually getting to hear the storms. I would also like to say that I am grateful to have teachers like Mr. Salmons and Mr. Rousey. I would also like to thank NASA for giving us this opportunity. 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 A Summary of Recent RJ Observing Results by Leonard Garcia, RITSS/GSFC December 1, 1999 Jim Thieman reports detecting a Jupiter Io-B storm at his site at Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC). He heard strong S-bursts and L-bursts from 3:08-4:05 UT. The most intense S-bursts were heard between 3:08 and 3:14 UT. During his observation he was contacted by Chuck Higgins at Penn State University, Linden Lundback and Brian Cowan from Watrous, SK, Canada and Bill Combs, Crawfordsville, Indiana. Wes Greenman, Alachua, Florida also reports picking up Jupiter bursts with his RJ equipment. After several weeks of kit building, astronomy undergraduate students at Penn State University completed their Radio JOVE kit under the guidance of Dr. Chuck Higgins. Stephanie Zonak, David Wilkinson, Joe Maywalt, Jerod Caligiuri, Melissa Parlanti, Michelle Graver, Daniel McDavitt, and Rick Mellon built the kit and tested it during the noisy daytime conditions on campus. During the test they successfully heard the WWV time signal at 20.0 MHz as well as a few broadcast stations. On the night of November 30, 1999, the Penn State Radio JOVE team, accompanied by undergraduate Jennifer Hahn and graduate student Ann Hornschemeier, set up their antenna off campus on a soccer field. Temperatures were in the 20s Fahrenheit, with wind chills in the sub-20s. They were rewarded with some strong Jupiter S and L-bursts between the hours of 10:10 - 10:45 EST (3:10 - 3:45 UT, Dec. 1). After a quick calibration, they headed for warm indoor places. Data analysis is soon to follow. Kudos to the Penn State students for a job well-done! November 30, 1999 Francisco Reyes at the University of Florida Radio Observatory (UFRO) received several strong bursts on the RJ receiver during the Io-C storm between 2:19 and 3:35 UT. These burst detections were confirmed by Wes Greenman in Alachua, Florida. Both noted a strong burst at 3:23 UT. Wes reports good observing conditions as early as 7pm (local time). November 24, 1999 Jim Thieman detected Jupiter radio bursts using the RJ equipment at GSFC. He detected bursts from 2:06 to 2:50 UT with strong bursts coming in between 2:34 and 2:38 UT. November 5, 1999 The team at Sacred Hearts Academy and Windward Community College, Hawaii picked up Jupiter radio bursts during an Io-C storm. On=20 the 6th of November they also heard strong S-burst emission during an Io-B storm. The RJ team in Hawaii is composed of Sandy Liang (student at Sacred Hearts), Nancy Rocheleau (Science Chairperson - Sacred Hearts), Mark Hedley (student Windward Community College) and Dick Flagg (RJ Core team). October 23, 1999 On the morning of October 23rd Jupiter radio observers were treated to a powerful Io-B radio storm. For more than an hour Jupiter radio bursts were picked up across a wide band of frequencies and occasionally sent recorders off-scale. From the University of Florida Radio Observatory(UFRO), Francisco Reyes noted strong pulses were detected from about 5:30 to 7:00 (UT) on frequencies of 18 to 32 MHz using their TP antennas. It was also quite strong on their RJ equipment. The peak of the storm took place between 6:47-6:50 UT. Dave Sublette analyzed the data taken by the Lexington Traditional Magnet school and noted strong bursts during the same time period as the UFRO. A tape of this observation was sent to NASA and was confirmed to be Jupiter radio bursts. October 22, 1999 On the morning of October 22 Francisco Reyes at the UFRO, Wes Greenman in Alachua, Florida and William Combs from Crawfordsville High School in Indiana detected some strange broadband radio noises at approximately 20 MHz between 5:10-5:20 UT. Upon later analysis they believe they were hearing auroral activity from the Earth. There was an alert for increased auroral activity beginning on October 21 and a strong aurora was observed on the 22nd between 7-8 UT. Investigation of this event is continuing. September 20, 1999 The Radio JOVE team at the Sacred Heart Academy and Windward Community College in Hawaii detected bursts from a Jupiter Io-C storm. On the 21st they also report hearing bursts from an Io-B storm. 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 Keep in Touch by Leonard Garcia, RITSS/GSFC We now have several means for Radio JOVE teams to keep in touch. First is the radiojove listserv email list that provides you with this newsletter and announcements of upcoming Jupiter radio storms. Announcements of general interest to Radio JOVE teams may be made though this listserv. We also have made available a Message Board on the Radio JOVE web page. This page is useful for reading general announcements, discussing your work with other Radio JOVE teams and for reporting problems with the jovechart software or problems with construction, testing or operation of the Radio JOVE receiver system. The message board is available at http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/dal/problems.htm During a predicted Jupiter storm we may announce a special toll-free phone number to call if you care to share the experience or give or get some advice on observing. A separate email will be sent through the listserv with more information. When you have detected Jupiter let us know. We have set up a detection list page. Please send us the date, time, name of the observers and location. Also include some description of the observation. The detection list is available at http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/dal/detections.htm . If you wish to submit data we would prefer to receive the data in the form of jovechart log files. These are normal text files that include the time and data values. If you want to reduce the size of the file you can edit it using most standard text editors and include the file as an email attachment. This will then be made available for other people to play through their jovechart software. 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5 Upcoming Jupiter Storms for December by Wes Greenman, UF December 7: Io-A,Io-C from 0100-0500 UT. (You can see a 7-day effect for both the Io-A,C storms and the Io-B storms.) For the East Coast, the storm is on December 6 from 2000-0000 EST or from 8PM to Midnight EST. The West Coast is from 5-9 PM PST. (Still too early). The best chance for the East Coast is from 10PM to Midnight EST (the Io-C portion). December 8: Io-B from 0400-0600 UT. For the East Coast the storm begins on December 7th at 2300 EST (11 PM) and runs to December 8th at 0100 EST. For the West Coast, from 8-10 PM PST on Dec.7th. This is a good opportunity for both coasts to observe Jupiter with (hopefully) decent conditions. Another opportunity to hear Jupiter S-bursts. December 14. Io-A from 0200-0300 UT and Io-C from 0500-0600 UT. For the East Coast, the Io-A storm is on Dec. 13th from 2100-2200 (9-10 PM EST). Too early for the West Coast. The second portion is on Dec. 14th from Midnight to 1 AM for the East Coast. Unfortunately, the odds are not great for the East Coast since Jupiter is well down into the beam. For the West Coast the second portion is on Dec.13th from 9-10 PM, a better than normal opportunity limited by conditions. December 16. Io-A from 0300-0400 UT. For the East Coast, the storm is on Dec. 15th from 2200-2300 EST or from 10-11 PM EST. For the West Coast, from 7-8 PM (early). Give it a shot. December 23. Io-A from 0400-0500 UT. For the East Coast , the storm is on Dec. 22nd from 2300-0000 EST or 11PM to Midnight EST. Jupiter is down in the beam for the East Coast, not good odds. The West Coast has the better chance from 8-9 PM, pretty early. Not great for either coast. 6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6 Radio JOVE at a Glance (from the RJ Web Site) * Teaches planetary and solar radio astronomy, space physics, and the scientific method * Target audience - Teachers and students of high school / college science courses * Provides teachers and students with a hands-on radio astronomy experience * Gain experience in electronics construction and testing * Interact with other Radio JOVE schools to exchange data, ideas, and experiences * Radio JOVE kits available for $100, additional equipment is required, including antenna supports, a tape recorder, and a PC with a sound card 7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Radio JOVE project is an educational/public outreach program involving scientists and educators from NASA, Raytheon ITSS, the University of Florida, the Florida Space Grant Consortium, RF Associates and The INSPIRE Project, Inc. The Radio JOVE project wishes to acknowledge support from the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Director's Discretionary Fund and the Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS) grant program administered by the Space Telescope Science Institute. 8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8 THE JOVE BULLETIN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION The JOVE Bulletin is published several times a year. It is a free service of the Radio JOVE Project. We hope you will find it of value. If any of your friends would like to subscribe, they may do so by sending E-mail to Leonard.Garcia@gsfc.nasa.gov. If you do not want to receive any more issues, send E-mail to Leonard.Garcia@gsfc.nasa.gov. Back issues are available on the Radio JOVE Project Web site, http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ For assistance or information send inquiries to: Radio JOVE Project Code 633 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 USA or Email: rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov FAX: 1-301-286-1771 =====================================================================