Goddard Projects Directory

The search for P produced 5 results out of 249 records P-21 Probe Launch Date: 10/19/1961 Suborbital launch of Scout rocket from Wallops to measure near-Earth electron densities and study radio propagation under daytime conditions. Other Name(s):  P21 |  NSSDC Link  |   P-21A Probe Launch Date: 03/29/1962 Suborbital launch from Wallops. Studied the Earth's ionosphere. Other Name(s):  P21A |  NSSDC Link  |   Pioneer IV Launch Date: 03/03/1959 Yielded excellent radiation data. Other Name(s):  Pioneer 4 |  NSSDC Link  |   Pioneer V Launch Date: 03/11/1960 Investigated interplanetary space between Earth and Venus; tested long range communications; studied methods for measuring cosmological distances. Other Name(s):  Pioneer 5, 1960 Alpha 1, P 2 |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Polar Launch Date: 02/24/1996 This polar-orbiting satellite studies the Earth's plasma physics interactions with the magnetic field, including the aurora. Scientists using NASA's Polar spacecraft have captured the first-ever movie of auroras dancing simultaneously around both of Earth's polar regions. During a space weather storm on October 22, Polar's Visible Imaging System observed the aurora borealis and aurora australis (northern and southern lights) expanding and brightening in parallel at opposite ends of the world. The images confirm the three-century old theory that auroras in the northern and southern hemispheres are nearly mirror images -- conjugates - of each other. The importance of magnetospheric dynamics on the aeronomy of the upper atmosphere is known, but it has never been clear how important, how extensive, how often, and how extreme the effect can be. Polar imaging provides a global view of the location and allows the intensity of the energetic processes to be inferred. Polar investigators have shown that catalytic atmospheric species can vary by as much as a factor of ten during extreme storm conditions. Other Name(s):  GGS/Polar, ISTP/Polar, Polar Plasma Laboratory |  GSFC Link  |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Image Gallery  |  Educational Resource  |