February 11 Documentary
Aurora: Living with a Star

An introduction to the aurora, its colors and shapes, and how it's caused. The aurora as the most visible sign of our planet's close connection to our local star, the Sun. The new concept of "space weather" as something that increasingly affects us all as we rely more and more on satellites for communications and to support the global economy and national security.

For a fuller description, see below or check out the website where images accompany the words: http://passporttoknowledge.com/sun/main.html

NOTE: After the February 11 broadcast, video clips from the documentary will be available on this page with descriptions and suggested activities for each segment. Broadcast dates and times may vary. Check your local PBS station at: http://www.pbs.org/whatson/index.html

AURORAS - Living with a Star is to appear on participating PBS stations (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS) from 13:00-14:00 (1:00-2:00) hours Eastern, Tuesday February 11, 2003.

All regular PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE / LIVE FROM... programming is made available free to public television stations, non-commercial cable, schools and educational networks. Check early/ASAP with your local PBS station to see if they are carrying the program either live or on tape delay. (Please note that some PBS stations will make tapes available to local educators even if they are not carrying the programming on their main channel.)

Students can submit questions to Sun-Earth and aurora researchers and receive back answers in real time from 13:00-15:00 hours Eastern (1:00-3:00 p.m.) on that day only via the ON-AIR form that can be accessed via the INTERACT section of P2K's LIVE FROM THE AURORA website.

FOR PBS STATIONS AND THOSE ABLE TO ACCESS AMC-3 (formerly GE-3) VIA DIGICYPHER ONLY!!!
The program will be fed on the digitally encoded Ku channel 511 (not 512) on the Digicypher, on AMC-3 from 13:30-14:30 on FEBRUARY 10, 2003. Please note, this is NOT the suggested AIR date, but rather the FEED date.

To repeat...

PLEASE NOTE THE INTENDED NATIONAL CARRIAGE DATE FOR THIS PROGRAM IS TUESDAY FEBRUARY 11, FROM 13:00-14:00 EASTERN. PLEASE CARRY THE PROGRAM AT THAT TIME TO ALLOW VIEWERS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A REAL-TIME ONLINE QUESTION AND ANSWER OPPORTUNITY BEING MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH NASA AND OTHER PARTNERS FROM 13:00-15:00 EASTERN, I.E. 2 HOURS IN TOTAL

C-band:
Subject to last minute agency pre-emptions, the program will also be carried on NASA-TV (which is accessible direct from satellite by many schools and science centers, and/or carried by many cable systems.) NASA-TV will air the program from 13:00-14:00 hours on Tuesday February 11, and then repeat it as part of its regular EDUCATION FILE programming (from 14:00-15:00, 17:00-18:00, 20:00-21:00, etc.)

NASA Television programming can be accessed through AMC-2, transponder 9C. The frequency is 3880 Mhz. Orbital position is 85 degrees West Longitude. Polarity is Vertical. Audio is at 6.8 Mhz. This is a transponder service and will be operational 24 hours a day.

NASA Television is also transmitted through the World Wide Web. Check out the following web site for further information: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ntvweb.html

ONCE AGAIN PLEASE NOTE: At any time NASA TV may pre-empt scheduled programming for live Agency events. Check the NTV and P2K websites for any late-breaking information.