HR: 0800h
AN: ED51B-0429    [Abstracts]
TI: INSPIRE: Interactive NASA Space Physics Ionosphere Radio Experiment
AU: * Franzen, K A
EM: kathleen@womanfriday.com
AF: INSPIRE Project, 518 Sixth Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003, United States
AU: Garcia, L N
EM: Leonard.N.Garcia@nasa.gov
AF: Perot Systems/NASA GSFC, Code 672.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Webb, P A
EM: Phillip.A.Webb@nasa.gov
AF: UMBC/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 674.0, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Green, J L
EM: James.L.Green@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Headquarters/Planetary Science, Mail Stop: 3Z74, Washington, DC 20546, United States
AB: The INSPIRE Project is a non-profit scientific and educational corporation whose objective is to bring the excitement of observing very low frequency (VLF) natural radio waves to high school students. Underlying this objective is the conviction that science and technology are the underpinnings of our modern society, and that only with an understanding of these disciplines can people make correct decisions in their lives. Since 1989, the INSPIRE Project has provided specially designed radio receiver kits to over 2,500 students and other groups to make observations of signals in the VLF frequency range. These kits provide an innovative and unique opportunity for students to actively gather data that can be used in a basic research project. Natural VLF emissions that can be studied with the INSPIRE receiver kits include sferics, tweeks, whistlers, and chorus, which originate from phenomena such as lightning. These emissions can either come from the local atmospheric environment within a few tens of kilometers of the receiver or from outer space thousands of kilometers from the Earth. VLF emissions are at such low frequencies that they can be received, amplified and turned into sound that we can hear, with each emission producing in a distinctive sound. In 2006 INSPIRE was re-branded and its mission has expanded to developing new partnerships with multiple science projects. Links to magnetospheric physics, astronomy, and meteorology are being identified. This presentation will introduce the INSPIRE project, display the INSPIRE receiver kits, show examples of the types of VLF emissions that can be collected and provide information on scholarship programs being offered.
UR: http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 2768 Plasmasphere
DE: 3324 Lightning
DE: 5435 Ionospheres (2459)
DE: 6929 Ionospheric physics (1240, 2400)
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting