From The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Via
7.6.24
Jamie Carter
NASA’s GOLD mission found unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in the plasma of Earth’s ionosphere. Researchers have likened our upper atmosphere to “alphabet soup.”
Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk [GOLD]
This visualization shows C-shaped and reverse-C-shaped plasma bubbles appearing close together in the ionosphere on Oct. 12, 2020, and Dec. 26, 2021, as observed by NASA’s GOLD mission (Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio)
A NASA satellite has spotted unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in Earth’s ionosphere, the layer of electrified gas in the planet’s atmosphere that allows radio signals to travel over long distances.
The ionosphere is an electrified region of Earth’s atmosphere that exists because radiation from the sun strikes the atmosphere. Its density increases during the day as its molecules become electrically charged. That’s because sunlight causes electrons to break off of atoms and molecules, creating plasma that enables radio signals to travel over long distances. The ionosphere’s density then falls at night — and that’s where GOLD comes in.
NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission is a geostationary satellite that has been measuring densities and temperatures in Earth’s ionosphere since its launch in October 2018. From its geostationary orbit above the western hemisphere, GOLD was recently studying two dense crests of particles in the ionosphere, located north and south of the equator. As night falls, low-density bubbles appear within these crests that can interfere with radio and GPS signals. However, it’s not just the wax and wane of sunshine that affects the ionosphere — the atmospheric layer is also sensitive to solar storms and huge volcanic eruptions, after which the crests can merge to form an X shape.
In its new observations, GOLD found some of these familiar X shapes in the ionosphere — even though there weren’t any kinds of solar or volcanic disturbances to create them.
“Earlier reports of merging were only during geomagnetically disturbed conditions,” Fazlul Laskar, a research scientist at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), said in a statement. Laskar is the lead author of a paper published in April in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics that described these unexpected observations.
Observations from NASA’s GOLD mission shows charged particles in the ionosphere forming an X shape on Oct. 7, 2019. (The colors indicate the intensity of the ultraviolet light emitted, with yellow and white indicating the strongest emission, or highest ionospheric density.) (Image credit: F. Laskar et al.)
“It is an unexpected feature during geomagnetic quiet conditions,” he said.
This suggests that what happens in the lower atmosphere actually affects the ionosphere more than extreme solar or volcanic events.
In addition to the odd X’s, GOLD also saw curved C-shaped bubbles appear in the plasma surprisingly close together. Scientists think they are shaped and orientated according to the direction of winds, but GOLD imaged C-shape and reverse-C-shaped bubbles as close as about 400 miles (643 kilometers) apart. To have wind patterns change so drastically over such short distances is quite unusual, according to the researchers.
“It’s really important to find out why this is happening,” LASP research scientist Deepak Karan, lead author of a separate paper published in November in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, said in the statement. “If a vortex or a very strong shear in the plasma has happened, this will completely distort the plasma over that region. Signals will be lost completely with a strong disturbance like this.”
This is not the first time NASA has sought to understand more about the ionosphere. Most recently, a project called Atmospheric Perturbations Around The Eclipse Path (APEP) investigated how a drop in sunlight and temperature affects Earth’s upper atmosphere.
NASA Atmospheric Perturbations Around The Eclipse Path (APEP) spacecraft
During October 14’s annular solar eclipse across the southwest U.S. and again during April 8’s total solar eclipse across North America, NASA launched three suborbital sounding rockets into the eclipse path to measure changes in electric and magnetic fields, density and temperature within the ionosphere.
The results of the mission are still forthcoming.
See the full article here .
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation’s civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.
Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab Orbital Workshop, and later the Space Shuttle.
Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station .
NASA is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles.
The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. Most recently, NASA announced a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency’s astronauts farther into space than ever before and lay the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
It is impossible to place a value on the work accomplished by the great Observatories:
The addition of the Webb Infrared observatory has proven to be immeasurably valuable. Webb has taken Man further back to the origins of the first stars and galaxies than we could have ever imagined.
And now NASA’s PACE spacecraft will help us better understand our ocean and atmosphere by measuring key variables associated with cloud formation, particles and pollutants in the air, and microscopic, floating marine life (phytoplankton). These observations will help us better monitor ocean health, air quality, and climate change.
NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System, advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate’s Heliophysics Research Program.
NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構](JP) and The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne] [Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU).