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KP4IG > SAT 07.12.03 00:23l 66 Lines 2581 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-341.01
Read: DB0FHN GUEST
Subj: Cocoa Beach 10th-grader catches NASA's eye
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<DB0EA<DB0RES<ON0AR<WB0TAX<KP4IG
Sent: 031206/2217Z @:KP4IG.#JD.PR.USA.NA #:13713 WFBB7.00i $:ANS-341.01
From: KP4IG@KP4IG.#JD.PR.USA.NA
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 341.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. December 7, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-341.01
Massive bubbles of gas bursting from the sun hurtle highly charged
particles toward Earth's magnetic field and endanger satellites and
power grids below them.
Cocoa Beach Junior/Senior High sophomore Alannah NicPhaidin wants to
know when the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are going to occur.
"It's like life or death between satellites," she said.
NicPhaidin's research and enthusiasm have earned her an invitation to
the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, home of operations for the
SOHO spacecraft that have studied CMEs during the past eight years.
The 15-year-old's work began last year, when her entry in the annual
Space Congress science fair in Cocoa Beach -- "The Effects of Solar
Activity on Near Earth Atmosphere: Hurricanes on the Sun" -- won second
place and seven special awards.
John Wood, a lead engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope program, met
NicPhaidin at the fair and invited her to Goddard.
With guidance from Florida Tech associate professor Hamid Rassoul,
NicPhaidin showed a correlation between sunspot activity and CMEs.
Within the known 11-year cycle between periods of intense activity on
the sun, NicPhaidin thinks there might be smaller, one-year cycles
during which the activity peaks and falls.
Understanding those cycles means scientists might be able to predict
the activity -- and possibly protect satellites, astronauts and
infrastructure from the radiation.
"I think it's really meaningful because it can help people with
satellites say, we're in a peak for this year, so we should be more on
alert," she said.
Her interest is timely. In October, some of the most violent sun
activity recorded launched nearly a dozen powerful CMEs, one of which
disabled a Japanese satellite and knocked out power in parts of Sweden.
"They can have a very big social and economical impact on earth," SOHO
deputy project scientist Paal Brekke said.
NicPhaidin grew up in Ireland, where she had a interest in science but
leaned toward a career in veterinary medicine. She caught the space bug
after she and her mother moved to Palm Bay in 1996 and she began
seeing shuttle launches.
She hopes to predict CME occurrences before she graduates from high
school and goes on to study astrophysics.
"Scientists are just now beginning to say maybe we should do more on
these things," she said.
[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]
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