Anything But Basic

I ❤️ him so hard

How Airglow Can Help Us Understand the Sun’s Influence on Earth

You may have seen the famous blue marble or pale blue dot images showing Earth from 18,000 and 3.7 billion miles away, respectively. But closer to home — some 300 miles above Earth’s surface — you might encounter an unfamiliar sight: vibrant swaths of red and green or purple and yellow light emanating from the upper atmosphere.

This light is airglow.

Airglow is created when atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, excited by sunlight, emit light to shed excess energy. Or, it can happen when atoms and molecules that have been ionized by sunlight collide with and capture a free electron. In both cases, these atmospheric particles emit light in order to relax again. The process is similar to how auroras are created, but while auroras are driven by high-energy solar wind, airglow is energized by day-to-day solar radiation.

Since sunlight is constant, airglow constantly shines throughout Earth’s atmosphere, and the result is a tenuous bubble of light that closely encases our planet. Its light is too dim to see easily except in orbit or on the ground with clear, dark skies and a sensitive camera — it’s one-tenth as bright as the light given off by all the stars in the night sky.  

Airglow highlights a key part of our atmosphere: the ionosphere. Stretching from roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth’s surface, the ionosphere is an electrified layer of the upper atmosphere generated by extreme ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. It reacts to both terrestrial weather below and solar energy streaming in from above, forming a complex space weather system. Turbulence in this ever-changing sea of charged particles can manifest as disruptions that interfere with Earth-orbiting satellites or communication and navigation signals.

Understanding the ionosphere’s extreme variability is tricky because it requires untangling interactions between the different factors at play — interactions of which we don’t have a clear picture. That’s where airglow comes in. Each atmospheric gas has its own favored airglow color, hangs out at a different height and creates airglow by a different process, so we can use airglow to study different layers of the atmosphere.

Airglow carries information on the upper atmosphere’s temperature, density, and composition, but it also helps us trace how particles move through the region itself. Vast, high-altitude winds sweep through the ionosphere, pushing its contents around the globe — and airglow’s subtle dance follows their lead, highlighting global patterns.

Two NASA missions take advantage of precisely this effect to study the upper atmosphere: ICON — short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — and GOLD — Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk.

ICON focuses on how charged and neutral gases in the upper atmosphere behave and interact, while GOLD observes what drives change — the Sun, Earth’s magnetic field or the lower atmosphere — in the region.

By imaging airglow, the two missions will enable scientists to tease out how space and Earth’s weather intersect, dictating the region’s complex behavior.

Keep up with the latest in NASA’s airglow and upper atmosphere research on Twitter and Facebook or at nasa.gov/sunearth.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

If I haven't mentioned it recently, I ❤️you!

The Haven of Fiction Master Post

Link to Master Post or just use the Read More option below. 

Keep reading

So amazing! Can’t wait for the next scene 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😎😁😎😛

LEGO Hamlet. Act 1, Scene 1

“And will he not come again? And will he not come again? No, no, he is dead: Go to thy death-bed: He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll: He is gone, he is gone.” See Act 1, Scene 1 in full here on my website.

Join me on Wednesday for Act 1, Scene 2.

Just a reminder: MCU St*rker shippers? Don’t interact with me. I do not ship your ship, I will never ship your ship, I think it’s gross (to a nauseating degree like my stomach legitimately curls at the thought of it) and I do not want exposure to it even through a blogger’s url. 

If you’re underage and shipping it, I do not mean to sound like I am harshly judging you, because you’re young, and I get it, I was into older dudes when I was a kid. Hopefully you’ll grow out of it and realize why it’s so revolting and morally despicable one day. (Please educate yourself on this now though because you really shouldn’t be shipping something like this.)

If you’re of age and shipping it? Let me be as harsh as fucking possible: you’re disgusting.

Thank you, infinitely, for bringing Steve Rogers to life. As much as it was your honour to portray him, it has been our honour to watch you, grow up with you, and be inspired by you. I truly hope A4 is not the end or last we’ll see of you in the MCU. We’ve been so incredibly lucky. 

Thank you, Chris.

“…I know that road.”

I’m dead. I’m dead I died I’m DECEASED

So if the Democrats take the Senate, Bernie Sanders becomes head of the Senate Budget Committee? Which would make him the fourth most powerful individual in the United States.

Imagine how much we could get done with a Sanders-led Senate Budget Committee under a Democratic president who has already been forced to adopt most of his domestic policy in exchange for his endorsement.

If you really want to see the change we got behind Bernie for, get Clinton into the White House, and get Democrats into the House and Senate.

(Also keep in mind that this next president gets to decide what’s constitutional and unconstitutional for the next 30-50 years, as they will most likely get to appoint at least four Supreme Court Justices.)

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Also, know that it’s okay for us to say we’re crazy but you? Hi, you can never say that to us.

Reblog if you love Loki