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NASA's IMAGE Telescope Shows Magnetopause Glow Around Earth From Sun's Solar Wind; Helps Predict Space Weather
By Alex Canizares
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 08:18 pm ET
31 May 2000
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IMAGE Shows Glow Around Earth WASHINGTON, May 31 (States News Service) -- IMAGE has captured the first-ever global images of the Earths electrically charged upper atmosphere, a discovery that paves the way for mapping space weather, scientists announced Wednesday. 
| The irregularly shaped plasmasphere surrounding the Earth surprised scientists. |
The images taken by NASAs Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration reveal a bright glow of plasma made from protons and electrons in the Earths upper atmosphere in response to the solar wind. The first images of the glow, called the extreme ultraviolet aurora, were shown at a press conference held by the American Geophysical Union. The new three-dimensional images show the plasmasphere is not symmetric -- as scientists expected -- but is dynamic, turbulent and moves during "storms," said Patricia H. Reiff of the IMAGE Education and Public Outreach team. "Those are beautiful views of the plasmasphere," said James L. Green, deputy project scientist for IMAGE. "Weve never seen those before." IMAGE uses 1,640-foot (500-meter) antennas -- making the entire structure three times the size of the International Space Station -- to measure the distance, shape and motion of the aurora. The plasmasphere has been observed from Earth for decades, but IMAGE gives a global view from outer space that acts like a "storm chaser" by tracking large events caused by Earths magnetic field in the upper atmosphere, said Stephen Fuselier, IMAGE scientist from Lockheed Martin.
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