________            ______ _   ______  ___       ____    __  _
/_  __/ /  ___   __ / / __ \ | / / __/ / _ )__ __/ / /__ / /_(_)__
 / / / _ \/ -_) / // / /_/ / |/ / _/  / _  / // / / / -_) __/ / _ \
/_/ /_//_/\__/  \___/\____/|___/___/ /____/\_,_/_/_/\__/\__/_/_//_/

               -the newsletter* of NASA's Radio JOVE Project
                 "Planetary Radio Astronomy for Schools"

* This newsletter is best viewed using a fixed-width font such as
 Courier. This will allow the logo above and tables etc. to be aligned
 properly.

APRIL 2000 ISSUE
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               Visit our Web Site: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov
               Email Radio JOVE at: rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

 CONTENTS

 1. Radio JOVE at the NSTA
 2. Radio JOVE chat session on the web
 3. Software Update
 4. Jovian and Solar Observing
 5. RJ News
 6. Take our Radio JOVE Survey!
 7. Radio JOVE at a Glance
 8. Acknowledgments
 9. Subscription Information

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 Radio JOVE at the NSTA
 by Jim Thieman, NASA/GSFC

 Members of the Radio JOVE team will be at the National Science
 Teacher's Association (NSTA) convention in Orlando, FL April 6-9,
 2000. There will actually be two sessions that concern Radio JOVE.
 The first is called "Radio Active Jupiter!" and occurs from 5:00 to
 6:00 on Friday, April 7th in room 231C (room assignments are tentative
 so please check a program to verify). The second is a joint session
 on Saturday from 12:30 to 1:30 of Radio JOVE with the Goldstone Apple
 Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) project in a session called "Join NASA
 for the Jupiter Encounter 2000".  This should be in room 205C, but
 again, please check the program.  There is also another session for
 GAVRT also, unfortunately, scheduled simultaneously with the Radio
 JOVE session on Friday.  That one is titled "Jupiter Quest: Listening
 to Jupiter with a Real Radio Telescope"  we don't have the room number
 for that session. If any Radio JOVE participants are attending the
 NSTA please stop by.

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 Radio JOVE chat session on the web
 by Jim Thieman, NASA/GSFC

 For those of you who might be interested in asking questions about the
 Radio JOVE project, or just chatting about the project or space science
 in general I will be "in the hot seat" for an on-line webchat session
 scheduled on Wednesday, April 12, from 1:30 to 2:30 eastern time
 (10:30 to 11:30 pacific time).  We'd love to have you come and chat
 about your experiences or plans.  You have to register for the
 program. Go to http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ and click on the "What's
 Happening" hyperlink, then scroll down to April 12.  You can register
 using the hyperlinks there or just observe the chat session if you
 prefer.  Hope you can join us.

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 Software Update
 by Leonard Garcia, RITSS/GSFC

 Ron Parise, creator of the JoveChart software, has recently tracked
 down a bug which had resulted in problems installing JoveChart version
 1.1 on computers that had not had version 1.0 already installed. For
 some time a work around had been to install version 1.0 of the
 software and then install version 1.1 on top of that. With this bug
 fix that work around is no longer necessary. Users can download the
 latest version of the software from our website. Radio JOVE
 participants who have received a CD with a date of "January 2000"
 printed on it already have the newest version.

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 Jupiter and Solar Observing

 On May 8, 2000, Jupiter will be in conjunction with the Sun, in other
 words the Sun will be between Jupiter and Earth. Once Jupiter moves
 out of the Sun's glare it will again be visible but in the early morning
 hours rather than in the early evening.

 Since Jupiter will be so close to the Sun and the Sun's effect on the
 Earth's ionosphere makes observing Jupiter very difficult anyway why not
 use the Radio JOVE equipment to observe the Sun? Dale Gary, Associate
 Professor of Physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, recently
 sent out an email message to the Radio JOVE participants about solar
 radio emission. This message was so informative that we are reprinting
 sections of it here.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Sun is nearing the peak of its 11-year activity (peak is
predicted about July 2000), and the appearance of a big sunspot group
on the Sun can mean better chances of getting an event, but they can
happen almost any time.  So, listen often.

At 20 MHz the main type of radio-producing event is a beam of electrons
that gets accelerated in the solar corona and produces "plasma radiation"
which is a coherent mechanism that can be extremely bright.  Individual
beams of electrons will last only a 10 seconds or so at 20 MHz, and come from
about 1 solar radius above the surface of the Sun.  They sometimes happen
in groups, however, and so you may see spikey emission lasting for 1 to 5
minutes.  These electron beam bursts are called type III emission.

Another possible type of emission is due to a shock wave, again traveling
out through the solar corona but going more slowly. The emission can last
several minutes or more, and will be smoother in time.  These shock wave
bursts are called type II emission.  They are much rarer than type III
emission.

Rarely, a type of emission called "noise storm" emission can be produced at
20 MHz.  This emission can last for hours or days, and can be rather spikey.
It is much more common at higher frequencies, but can happen occasionally
at 20 MHz.  This emission is called type IV emission.

If you see something, how can you tell if it is really a solar burst?  If
you have access to the web, these bursts are reported daily by a world-wide
network at the Space Environment Center at NOAA.  Type the following into
your browser:

gopher://sec.noaa.gov:70/11/indices/events

then click on the day you want to check.  Here is the start of the file
for today (the file for the current day is updated every 30 minutes):

#Event    Begin    Max       End  Obs  Q  Type  Loc/Frq   Particulars
Reg#
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5040       0041   0041      0041  LEA  G   RBR  245       65

5050 +     0132   0132      0132  LEA  G   RBR  245       72

5080       0242   0248      0316  PAL  G   RNS  410       230

5060       0250   ////      0251  LEA  C   RSP  030-05    III/1

5070       0318   0322      0334  LEA  3   FLA  S17E30    SF
8882
5070 +     0324   0332      0344  GO8  5   XRA  1-8A      C4.4    4.4E-03
8882

The Begin, Max, End columns are times in HHMM, universal time.  The Type
column shows the type of event being reported.  Here are the meanings:
	RBR  radio burst.
	RNS  radio noise storm
	RSP  radio spectrograph
	FLA  optical flare
	XRA  x-ray flare

The Loc/Frq column gives different information depending on the Type column.
For RBR, RNS this is the radio frequency (MHz).  For RSP it is the frequency
range (MHz).  For FLA it is the location of the optical flare (solar
coordinates). For XRA it is the wavelength of the x-rays.  The Particulars
column for RBR and RNS gives the radio flux (in solar flux units, or SFU, 1
SFU=10^-22 W/m^2/Hz).  For RSP, it gives the type and intensity (this one
is a type III burst, of intensity 1, which is the lowest intensity).  An
intensity of 3 is the highest intensity.

The entry we would be most interested in is the one repeated below:

#Event    Begin    Max       End  Obs  Q  Type  Loc/Frq   Particulars
Reg#
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5060       0250   ////      0251  LEA  C   RSP  030-05    III/1

This shows that a type III burst occurred between 5 and 30 MHz (so should
be seen by Jove at 20 MHz if bright enough), and it lasted for about
1 minute from 0250 to 0251 UT.

I hope this information is of use to people who want to use Jove to detect
some solar events.  Let us know if someone catches one, and you can "prove"
it too by showing the NOAA report of the event.

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 RJ News

 *Francisco Reyes and Wes Greenman of the UF Radio Observatory and
 Radio JOVE Core Team members gave a talk on the Jupiter decametric
 radio emission and the Radio Jove Project to 15 teachers and high school
 students participating in the 37th Annual Junior Science, Engineering and
 Humanities Symposium, held at the University of Florida campus.

 * The RJ Kit price has increased from $100 to $115 based on a more
 realistic estimate of actual costs for the first 200 kits sold. Our
 prices are still a good deal since we have been able to keep them
 down by buying parts for the kits in bulk.

 * Jim Brown, Director of the Stanback Planetarium at South Carolina
 State University, has developed a variation on the RJ antenna mast
 design. He reports that it makes putting up and taking down the
 antennas quicker. For more details check out:
 http://www.draco.scsu.edu/joveant.html

 * The Radio JOVE Website now has a link to the University of Florida's
 "UF Radio Observatory Online". This site (linked from the Radio
 JOVE Control Room web page under "Access UFRO On-line") contains
 useful information about Jovian radio emission, Jovian and Solar
 sound files in MP3 format and images of the UF Radio Observatory. This
 new site will eventually contain live data from the UF Radio
 Observatory's main instruments as well as a Radio JOVE
 antenna/receiver system and and INSPIRE receiver. This data will be in
 the form of a stripchart display and audio output. The live data is
 not yet available. We will keep you informed of updates to this site.

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 Take Our Radio JOVE Survey!

 Please take a moment to fill out the following survey. This survey
 will help us know how the Radio JOVE project has been implemented in
 your school and where we need to make changes or improvements. Thank
 you.

Project Radio JOVE Participant Survey

1.  Did you complete the Radio JOVE kit?
                   Yes        No

2.  If yes, did you or will you make any observations with the
equipment?

3.  If no, could you state briefly why it was not completed?

4.  Do you have suggestions for making the kit more useful or valuable
for your purposes?

5.  Was Radio Jove useful as a tool in teaching science or technology?

              Very useful     Useful      Some help     Not useful

6.  Any comments on the reason for the answer to its usefulness?

7.  Have you used the Radio JOVE website
 (http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov)?
		Yes         No

8.  Do you have any suggestions for improvement of the web site?

9.  Any other comments or suggestions overall?

10.  For Radio JOVE purposes can you connect to the web?

	Yes        No

If yes, do you connect through :

	telephone dial-in (modem)

        intermediate access speeds  (DSL, low speed network)

        high speed network (ethernet, T1 or higher )

Thank you for your help in the survey.

Please return by email, mail or FAX to:

Jim Thieman
Email: james.thieman at nasa.gov
FAX:  301-286-1771
Code 633, NASA/GSFC
Greenbelt, MD 20771

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 Radio JOVE at a Glance
 (from the RJ Web Site)

* Teaches planetary and solar radio astronomy, space physics, and the
scientific method

* Target audience - Teachers and students of high school / college
science courses

* Provides teachers and students with a hands-on radio astronomy
experience

* Gain experience in electronics construction and testing

* Interact with other Radio JOVE schools to exchange data, ideas, and
experiences

* Radio JOVE kits available for $115, additional equipment is required,
including antenna supports, a tape recorder, and a PC with a sound card

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Radio JOVE project is an educational/public outreach program
involving scientists and educators from NASA, Raytheon ITSS, the
University of Florida, the Florida Space Grant Consortium, RF
Associates and The INSPIRE Project, Inc.

The Radio JOVE project wishes to acknowledge support from the
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Director's Discretionary Fund and the
Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science
(IDEAS) grant program administered by the Space Telescope Science
Institute.

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 THE JOVE BULLETIN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

The JOVE Bulletin is published several times a year. It is a free
service of the Radio JOVE Project.  We hope you will find it of value.
If any of your friends would like to subscribe, they may do so by sending
E-mail to Leonard.Garcia@gsfc.nasa.gov.

If you do not want to receive any more issues,
send E-mail to Leonard.Garcia@gsfc.nasa.gov.

Back issues are available on the Radio JOVE Project Web site,

 http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For assistance or information send inquiries to:

 Radio JOVE Project
 Code 633
 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
 Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 USA

or

 Email:  rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov
 FAX: 1-301-286-1771
=======================================================================