Researchers at La Trobe university will use FedSat data, and computer imaging tricks borrowed from medicine, to build 3D pictures of the southern ionosphere. At all levels, Earth is interconnected with local space, especially the Sun. Her broader interests include anything concerning the Sun's effect on the ionosphere, plasmasphere, and upper and lower atmosphere. She will use FedSat to map the ionosphere's structure, and establish its role in global atmospheric processes, a major scientific contribution. Central to all ionospheric processes is the Sun.
Bright areas correspond to active sunspot regions.
The image also shows the Sun's complex magnetic field. The Sun outputs colossal quantities of radiation, far exceeding its output of heat and light. The wind extends four times beyond the furthest orbit of Pluto. Nearer the Sun, the wind blasts the atmospheres of the inner planets. Mars, for instance, was much once much more hospitable.