1. AGU 12/11/06 Determining Local Magnetic Field Strength on Location And Predicting The Dancing Auroras at School settings N. Craig L. M. Peticolas Space Science Laboratory http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis Vic Trautman Petersburg Schools, Petersburg AK A Quest to Understand the Dancing Light of Auroras

2. AGU 12/11/06 Magnetometer Schools in 10 States Petersburg City Schools: Victor Trautman ………………………………Petersburg, Alaska Chippewa Hills High School: Cris DeWolf Remus, Michigan Hot Springs High School: Sean Estill……………………………………….Hot Springs, Montana Western Nevada Community College: Terry Parent; Robert CollierCarson City, Nevada Fort Yates Public School: Frank Martin; Harriet Howe ……………..……Fort Yates, North Dakota Ukiah School: Laura Orr Ukiah, Oregon Northern Bedford County High School: Keith Little ………………………Loysburg, Pennsylvania Red Cloud High School: Wendell Gehman Pine Ridge, South Dakota Shawano Community High School: Wendy Esch …………………………Shawano, Wisconsin North County Union Jr. High School: Holly WilleyVermont

3. AGU 12/11/06 Cartoon of Instrument Setup

4. AGU 12/11/06 Fluxgate Magnetometer Setup Fluxgate Sensor Installed in Ground EPO Magnetometer Chassis Atop Magnetic Shield Calibration System We provided a technical users’ manuals along with GMAG unit; installed all 10 magnetometers, and Provided ground data processing, data access, and archiving procedures Fluxgate Sensor and cable in garden hose Fluxgate Magnetometer Electronics Circuit Board

5. AGU 12/11/06 Summary Magnetometers in 13 schools in 10 states 14+ teachers involved Data on the web Mostly high school classes Students excited by wiggles and spectrograms Student research Magnetometer data in school

6. AGU 12/11/06 Research Questions How do you determine the Intensity of the Total Local Magnetic Field using School Magnetometer data? How can you predict the onset of aurora using the data from the Magnetometer? 22:36:46 UT 12/02/2005 (30 min plot) 23:06:46 PM 12/02/2005 Shawano

7. AGU 12/11/06 The GEONS Data Vector Addition  X: the strength in nT of the magnetic field in the direction of magnetic north pole  Y: the strength in nT of the magnetic field in the magnetic east direction  Z: the strength in nT of the magnetic field pointing down Z (down) YD (magnetic east) XH (magnetic north) Not to scale 21615 nT -550 nT 45175 nT B represents the total strength of the magnetic field in the region.

8. AGU 12/11/06 Quiet Day Active Day Greater than 50 nT difference between X max and X min 12/12/05 Petersburg AK Less than 50 nT difference between X max and X min 12/07/05 Petersburg AK K indexnT diff. 00-5 15-10 210-20 320-40 440-70 570-120 6120- 200 7200- 330 8330- 500 9>500

9. AGU 12/11/06 Data Collection 1.Print off a days XYZ data. 2.Using a clear metric ruler 15 mm length, align the start of the ruler with the left side of the X scale. 3.Using a sharp pencil select the highest reading of the X component and draw a line to the X component scale. 4.Repeat drawing a line on the X component minimum reading. 5.Using the metric ruler measure the difference in mm, the scale is very close to 1mm = 5 nT.

10. AGU 12/11/06

11. Determining Your Kp index needed for an Aurora Display The actual map (on the web) will give you the Latitude-Longitude position for each location. http://www.sec.noaa.gov/Aurora/index.html http://spaceweather.com/glossary/kp.html

12. AGU 12/11/06 Teacher Professional Development Programs