The transition of Solar Probe Plus, which includes LASP-provided hardware, to phase B offers an opportunity to present the motivating science and engineering concepts behind this mission to the LASP community. The Solar Probe Plus mission is a historic endeavor to send a spacecraft closer to the Sun than ever before, with the goal of [...]

Most commercial, military and research satellites today have power systems that run from solar energy via solar cells with battery backups for eclipse periods. This type of power systems runs the gamut from small satellites to commercial broadcast satellites up to the International Space Station itself. However, this was not always the case, and, more [...]

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has returned over 60 million images of the Sun in its first 22 months of taking data. This data has given us spectacular views of flares and erupting prominences. We have learned how to predict when magnetic field will emerge from the surface and why satellite drag caused by solar flares [...]

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics is carrying on a project to restore and preserve data products from several past missions for archival and use by the scientific community via PDS. This project includes the restoration of data from Mariner 6/7, Pioneer Venus, Voyager 1/2, and Galileo. Here, we present initial results of re-analysis [...]

It is shown that the tidal force can be decomposed into two components: the Keplerian component and the Perturbed component. The Perturbed component of the tidal force variation was calculated, and it was shown that the observed periodicity, 206 and 412 days, of atmospheric and hydrosphere tides, Earth and Moon seismicity, result from variations of [...]

The ejection of mass during an impact event is a shock-driven process that shapes the distribution of materials on planetary surfaces. Ejection velocities dictate the ballistic emplacement and appearance of ejecta patterns, and are particularly important for interpretation of impact mission data. This talk presents results from new temporally-resolved studies of the early- to main-stage [...]

The STEREO mission, that has now been in scientific activity for more than 5 years, is made of two identical spacecraft orbiting the Sun at around one astronomical unit. The primary goal of the mission if the study of the coronal activity and mass ejections. The S/WAVES radio instrument onboard these spacecraft is designed to [...]

The dusty surfaces of Mars and the moon present challenges for NASA’s exploration efforts. We have developed technologies to actively remove dust from solar panels, optical systems, habitat surfaces, and spacesuits. I will describe different applications of this technology as well as the development of sensors and measuring techniques for lunar and Martian exploration missions.

Impact physics plays an important role in a variety of field such as investigation of matter at extreme pressures and temperature, shock waves in solid bodies or planetology and cosmic dust research.. The processes of interest are the generation of impact plasma, neutrals, secondary ejecta, and electromagnetic (EM) radiation. To relate the measured valued resulting [...]

We investigate the reconnection process induced by the MHD-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortex by using 2D fully kinetic simulations. The KH vortex has long been considered as one of the most important phenomena for causing momentum and energy transport or direct plasma mixing in collisionless plasmas. In this talk, we focus on the case in which [...]

We use direct numerical simulation to examine a variety of atmospheric phenomena on Jupiter’s moon Io and try to match simulations to observations. We have developed a rarefied gas dynamic global circulation model of the entire atmosphere subject to time-variable boundary conditions, a 3D electron transport code to model auroral glows, and a 3D molecular-based [...]

X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV, 0-121.6 nm) emission from the solar corona has long been used to provide insight into the dynamics and evolution of solar flares. The EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) measures the solar spectral irradiance in the EUV at a wide range of temperatures (7,000 K to [...]

Abstract Pending

One effect of meteoroid impact on planetary surfaces, for impacting bodies of sufficient mass and speed, is a brief flash of light in the visible or infrared range. In addition to the basics physics questions relating to the impact process, observation of light flash provides a remote diagnostic for impact events and subsequent surface modification. [...]