VENTURES
Space Weather Monitors:
Science to Students
Invisible layers of ions and
electrons are suspended in the
ionosphere, a layer of atmosphere about
50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Through
the Space Weather Monitor program,
hundreds of inexpensive ionospheric
monitors have been distributed to high
school and younger students so that
they can detect the effects of these ions
and electrons. Designed to interest these
students in atmospheric science, the Space
Weather Monitor program has reached out
to students around the world, primarily to
those in underdeveloped countries.
The Stanford Solar Center developed
this program as a research project of the
National Science Foundation-funded Center
for Integrated Space Weather Modeling. The
goal was to develop electronic receivers
inexpensive and easy enough for students
and teachers to use. The instruments were
inspired by an earlier version developed by
the American Association of Variable Star
Observers (AAVSO). But the AAVSO methods
and equipment were too sophisticated for
high school students to utilize. “There was
no way that students could work through
the necessary Fourier transforms,” said
Deborah Scherrer, education director at the
Stanford Solar Center.
Two years of collaboration between a
high school teacher with experience in
stanford scientific
written by NICOLE YANG
Credit Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
A bright and expansive coronal mass
electronics and a team of scientists in
ejection unfurled itself on January 24,
Stanford’s Solar Observatories Group
2007.
led to the development of the Sudden
Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) monitor. They
Earth’s surface. Solar activity affects the
modified the AAVSO version to a hand-held
ionosphere, which changes the signal
instrument that high school and college
strength of these VLF waves. By detecting
students could use.
VLF waves, SID monitors can reveal changes
in the Earth’s ionosphere.
Thanks to additional funding from the Solar
and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a
One type of disturbance that students
collaborative effort between NASA and the
can observe with these instruments is
European Space Agency, and from NASA
solar flares. Solar flares are intense releases
and the IHY (International Heliophysical
of energy that originate in the Sun’s
Year), the Space Weather Monitor program
atmosphere. The massive amounts of X-rays
has distributed 250 monitors throughout
and gamma rays emitted by these solar
the world. Stanford distributes the pre-
flares dramatically increase the ionization of
assembled and pre-tuned monitors at no
the Earth’s ionosphere.
cost primarily to underdeveloped countries
or disadvantaged students in the United
This increased ionization produces a sharp
States. “The kids love it, and the teachers
peak in VLF signal strength, much like
love it,” said Scherrer. “Two monitors are
earthquakes producing a sudden increase
scheduled to be sent to South Korea and
on a seismograph. These data can then be
Mongolia just today.”
compared by students to satellite data from
the GOES Database. NASA also provides near
Detecting Ionospheric real-time images from SOHO and a variety of
Disturbances satellites and ground-based observatories,
Students and teachers use SID monitors to presented at its Sun Earth Media Viewer
measure disturbances in the ionosphere webpage.
caused by the Sun. SID monitors measure
the signal strength of very low frequency “By looking at satellite images, students can
(VLF) radio waves that bounce off the track exactly which sunspot caused their
Earth’s ionosphere. VLF waves have very solar flare. The strength of the program is
long wavelenths of 7.5 miles and repeatedly that everything is easy to understand and
bounce between the ionosphere and the follow conceptually,” said Scherrer.

Promoting
around the Globe
Reaching Out and
Connecting
The main goal of the program is to excite
high school and younger students about
science. Scherrer explains, “Learning how
to think scientifically is a major eye-opener.
And owning your own monitor and
collecting your own data can significantly
increase interest.” Although there are
difficulties in measuring the long-term
impacts of the program, such as whether
students actually proceed to study science
in college and beyond, short-term impacts
measured in terms of student interest levels
have been “very high.”
Student research projects utilizing
SID monitors have won major science
competitions. Leandra Merola, a high
school student at South Side High School
in Rockville Centre, New York, undertook a
three-month research project to study the
sunrise and sunset signatures collected by
her SID monitor. Leandra captured data for
several months and analyzed how solar-
induced changes to the ionosphere effected
the sunrise and sunset signatures of VLF
waves propagating through the ionosphere.
Her project was entered in the prestigious
Intel Science Talent Search competition,
and she won third place out of about 120
students at the Regional Round of the Junior
Science and Humanities Symposium.
The Stanford Solar
Center’s educational
program engages
students to study the
science of the Sun
A bright solar flare is captured on
The Stanford Solar Center also maintains May 2, 1998.
a centralized database where high school
and community college students can add in touch with scientists. In addition
their data and view data collected by other to word-of-mouth efforts, informing
students. Mimicking the collaborative teachers of this opportunity occurs via IHY
nature of the scientific research community, educational outreach representatives and
students are highly encouraged to team up the IHY website. The program also has been
with each other as data collected at each introduced at a conference organized by
location is unique. the National Science Teachers Association.
With the help of Stanford alumni, the
The SID blog serves as a central education materials accompanying the
communication source for all of those monitors has been translated into the six
interested in the program, from the director official languages of the United Nations:
of solar section at the Astronomy Society Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and
of Southern Africa to a second-year science Spanish.
teacher in Philadelphia to a high school
student working as a research assistant at “We have the opportunity to reach students
the Alabama A&M University. in every country of the world,” said Scherrer.
The Stanford Solar Center hopes to place
After approximately 60 more monitors monitors in each of the 192 member
are distributed to teachers and students states of the United Nations, fostering
around the world, most efforts will be appreciationfostering appreciation for
channeled into providing teachers with science throughout the global community.
the correct resources and putting them
NICOLE YANG is a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering. She thinks the solar system is
quite amazing, especially since the Earth is actually a relatively small planet.
To Learn More
For more information on the program, visit the website http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID. The
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Homepage (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/) provides a
good introduction to basic facts about the Sun, as well as real-time images and data. The Yohkoh
Solar Observatory website (http://www.lmsal.com/SXT/homepage.html) also contains recent
satellite images and movies.
volume VII