USA Today, NYTimes, etc: New solar sat aims to improve space weather reports
This morning NASA was supposed to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Bad weather scotched that for at least a day, but several outlets have put up curtain raisers on the mission. It’s a good one for science. The bird is loaded with instruments to track solar flux, magnetic field shifts, the roilings of its atmosphere, and other aspects of what the space agency calls “Our Variable Sun.”
These days, those relative few members of the public that pay attention to solar science news and news in general will think, one can guess, first that this mission might settle whether or not solar variability is the ‘real’ reason for climate change. That, say some, would let humankind, the coal industry, various corporate boards of directors and central committee members, and modern industry in general off the hook. But the NASA press release down there in Grist does not say much about that. Also mute on it are most of the press reports. Attention is on other aspects of solar variability, such as solar storms that could disrupt communications and some other activities on Earth. This is a mistake – the expectation by the public for something on climate change will be there. Reporters should address not only the essentials of an event but answer or at least acknowledge if only briefly the likely questions reader will have – including this case of a mission that hasn’t much to do with long term climate change.
- USA Today/Florida Today – James Dean: Unlocking sun’s secrets key to Earth’s security ; It has a holy grail, but dances around this thing’s pertinence to understanding the climate.
- Space.com – Jeremy Hsu: New solar observatory to unlock sun’s mysteries ; Here’s a fascinating tech fact – this bird will stream down 50 times more data than anything NASA has ever launched so far.
- NYTimes – “Frank O’Connell: Science Illustrated / A Mission to Study the Sun ; Huge text-heavy graphic that ran inside yesterday’s ScienceTimes;
Satnews Daily: ULA’s Atlas V and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory – All Dressed Up and Nowhere to go – Yet! ; OK, this is a trade press site – but for the gadgeteers and rocketophiles in the audience it’s the one to read complete with mention of spun-formed aluminum domes and isogrid barrels, plus this blow-up diagram of the main booster stack.
Grist for the Mill: NASA Press Release ; Goddard-NASA SDO site ;
February 10th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Should we really expect measurements of the sun right now to directly say a whole lot about the effects of solar variability on climate? The variability that affects climate is in output “then” –100, 1000, 10,000 years ago–and now. Things like amounts of beryllium 10 in ice cores are one source of such “then” numbers.
However, I can imagine the Solar Dynamics Observatory clearing up some questions about solar physics that could help researchers make more sense of proxy indications of solar output in the past.
Still, stories that mention variability should say a little info about the differences between the kind of variability that knocks out a communications satellite and the kind associated with the Little Ice Age.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Jack – You make the same point I do, I think. “We” meaning reporters who’ve been at this awhile may expect little, direct long term climate change info from this mission. It’d take only a sentence to share the reason why. I think NASA’s theme for the mission, Our Variable Sun, sets up readers and, on first encounter, reporters and science fans to expect an expansive program to back it up. In fact it should be multi-platform program, not one bird – even if this one can take IMAX quality pictures at multiple wavelengths every ten seconds and other helio-seismology instruments will do full-sun-body scans while the ultraviolet gets yet another monitor. The press release itself starts off by talking of decade-plus scale variations in the sun before getting around to this mission’s more limited scope.