NASA GOLD’s Bird’s-Eye Reveals Mysterious Dynamics in Earth’s Interface to Space
Processes in Earth’s upper atmosphere create bright swaths of color known as airglow, as seen here in an image taken from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
New research using data from 
NASA’s GOLD mission – short for Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk – saw a surprising asymmetric motion in one of the twin bands of charged particles that form in Earth’s atmosphere at night. GOLD’s unique perspective (right) made this observation possible, as other types of measurements made from ground-based instruments (left) can’t see changes that happen over open waters. The red dots show the peak of the electron band as measured by ground-based sensors that measure total electron content, while the black dots show the peak of the electron band measured by GOLD. Towards the end of the visualization, the measured peaks appear in different places. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
This means the ionosphere and upper atmosphere are shaped by a host of complex factors, including space weather conditions – such as geomagnetic storms, driven by the Sun – and terrestrial weather. These regions also act as a highway for many of our communications and navigation signals. Changes in the ionosphere’s density and composition can muddle the signals passing through, like radio and GPS.
From its vantage point on a commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit,…
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