NASA Teleconference to Announce Northern Lights Findings

[NASA News <hqnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

July 17, 2008

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@xxxxxxxx

Laura Layton
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-8170
laura.a.layton@xxxxxxxx

MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-133

NASA TELECONFERENCE TO ANNOUNCE NORTHERN LIGHTS FINDINGS

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference on Thursday, July 
24, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the first results from a fleet of five 
satellites that have discovered what powers sudden brightening and 
rapid movements of the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis.

The satellites comprise NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale 
Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission. Launched in February 
2007, the satellite constellation is helping resolve the mystery of 
what triggers geomagnetic substorms, or atmospheric events visible in 
the Northern Hemisphere. Data from the mission may help protect 
commercial satellites and humans living in space from the adverse 
effects of particle radiation.

Briefing participants:
- Vassilis Angelopoulos, THEMIS principal investigator, University of 
California, Los Angeles
- David Sibeck, THEMIS project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Chuck Goodrich, THEMIS program scientist, NASA Headquarters, 
Washington
- Nicola Fox, scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics 
Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters should call Laura 
Layton at 301-286-8170 for dial-in instructions. Supporting 
information for the briefing will be posted at noon July 24 at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/auroras/themis_power_media.html

For more information about THEMIS, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/themis

	
-end-



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