For Educators
Introductory Research Activity
A draft introductory activity has been developed by Stanford Solar Center to introduce students to the monitors and their data. This activity is currently being tested in classrooms. It is best done with data from your own monitor. However, sample data is available if you are interested in trying the activity before you obtain a monitor: SID Activities Teacher Guide (pdf)
Classroom Materials
The Chabot Space and Science Center has partnered with the Stanford Solar Center to develop classroom materials, laboratory activities, and teacher training for the Space Weather Monitor Project. The focus of the materials is the Sun and Space Weather.Space Weather Forecast - Teachers Guide (pdf)
A solar curriculum developed and tested at San Leandro High School, San Leandro, California has been successfully used and tested with various high school general science classes. A brief description is available at: SLHS Solar Curriculum
Samples of Student Work
Click above for a collection of student worksheets and research projects associated with the Space Weather Monitors.
Other References
Simulations of the Ionosphere
For a simulation/visualization of how the ionosphere responds to day and night, see Visualizing the Ionosphere. Note that the videos represent a coronal mass ejection (CME) striking the Earth, not a solar flare as the SIDs pick up. So only the day/night and north/south hemisphere information is relevant to SID data.
Potential Research Projects
Sunrise/Sunset-related Phenomena
During periods of low solar activity (e.g. 2006) it may be necessary to focus on aspects of the data other than solar flares. Your students might be able to do something intriguing related to the sunrise and sunset "signatures" that the monitors pick up.Tracking Solar Flares
Your students might attempt to compare solar flare signatures from various SID monitors to find out if latitude affects the signatures and hence the ionospheric response to flares.Ionization Effects
There is much your students can learn by trying to understand the processes going on in the ionosphere. How and why do VLF signals bounce off the ionosphere, and thus provide communication "around" the Earth? Why are the daytime and nighttime SID signals different? How does the Sun normally influence the ionosphere? What happens to the ionosphere during a solar flare? These are more questions of discovery rather than research, but they provide an important background understanding for some of the research exercises suggested.SID and AWESOME Antennas
"Antennas, to quote a friend, are one of life's eternal mysteries." The SID Manual describes how to build a couple loop antennas, one twice the diameter of the other. But the options for size, shape, materials, and wire are almost unlimited. Why? What is the best design and size for a SID antenna, for an AWESOME one? What are the tradeoffs? Most of these answers are unknown. Perhaps your students would like to figure them out. To get started, try reading: Antenna Basics and look at our page of questions about antennas.Nighttime Data Research Activities
Your SID or AWESOME monitor can run 24 hours a day. Obviously, solar activity will affect the ionosphere only during the daytime. But many phenomena such as lighting storms and gamma ray bursts have a dramatic effect on the nighttime ionosphere, when effects from the Sun no longer drown them out. Stanford's STAR Laboratory - VLF Group investigates the Earth's electrical environment, lightning discharges, radiation belts, and the ionosphere. The AWESOME instrument data is broad-band and much more sensitive than the SID instrument's and thus more useful for nighttime ionospheric research. If you have advanced students who are interested in looking into this area, here are some nighttime data suggestions.Predicting Solar Storms
Like predicting Earth's weather, predicting the occurrence of a solar flare or storm is complex and difficult work, an area that the professionals are just beginning to understand.Ionospheric Changes as Earthquake Predictors?
There is some intriguing research about whether large earthquakes are associated with ionospheric changes caused by electromagnetic signals released by the crushing of rock crystalline structures. If so, then ionospheric changes might be a mechanism for major earthquake prediction. This research is still young and controversial and, if there are effects, they may be way too subtle for the SID or even the AWESOME instruments to pick up.