Comparing Ionospheres of Mars and Earth, and Examining Distance from the Sun over the Course of a Mars or Earth Year
slow reveal by Dr. Angeline G. Burrell, graph from a paper by Burrell, Sánchez-Cano, Witasse, et al (2020).
(Slide deck includes notes and questions to elicit discourse)
Type of Graph: line graph
Source: Dr. Angeline G. Burrell, Research Physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in DC
Burrell, A.G., Sánchez-Cano, B., Witasse, O. et al. Comparison of terrestrial and Martian TEC at dawn and dusk during solstices. Earth Planets Space 72, 140 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-020-01258-3
key vocabulary:
- aphelion: the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from the sun.
- perihelion: the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the sun.
- astronomical units (AU): unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and equal to about 150 million kilometres. The actual distance varies as Earth orbits the Sun, from a maximum to a minimum and back again once each year
- solar longitude (Ls): the ecliptic longitude of the sun; describes the position of the earth in its orbit, being zero at the moment of the vernal equinox.
- ionosophere: charged regions that exist within the upper atmospheres of planets, moons, and minor bodies of the Solar and other Stellar Systems.
Potential Math Content: line graphs, trigonometric functions, curves, comparing units, developing theories about why (e.g. length of seasons)
Potential Content Connections: astrophysics, space physics, cycles
