Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                 2019 April 8
                                      [2]
                       AZURE Vapor Tracers over Norway
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Yang Sutie [3]

Explanation: What's happening in the sky? The atmosphere over northern Norway
[4] appeared quite strange for about 30 minutes last Friday when colorful
clouds, dots, and plumes suddenly appeared. The colors were actually created
by the NASA-funded Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment [5] (AZURE) which
dispersed gas tracers to probe winds in Earth's upper atmosphere [6] . AZURE's
tracers [7]  originated from two short-lived sounding rockets [8] launched
from the And°ya Space [9] Center [10]  in Norway. The harmless gases,
trimethylaluminum [11] and a barium [12] / strontium [13]  mixture, were
released into the ionosphere [14] at altitudes of 115 and 250 km. The vapor
trails were observed [15] dispersing [16] from several ground stations.
Mapping how AZURE's vapors [17] dispersed should increase humanity's
understanding of how the solar wind [18] transfers energy to the Earth and
powers aurora [19] .

                    Tomorrow's picture: saturnian surprise

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< [20] | Archive [21] | Submissions [22] | Index [23] | Search [24] | Calendar
  [25] | RSS [26] | Education [27] | About APOD [28] | Discuss [29] | > [30]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [31] (MTU [32] ) & Jerry Bonnell [33]
                                  (UMCP [34] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [35] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [36]
              A service of: ASD [37]  at NASA [38]  / GSFC [39]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [40]
----------
Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1904/AzurePlumesNorway_Sutie_4242.jpg
  [3] mailto:6596787  qq .dot. com
  [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway
  [5]
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/
sounding-rocket-mission-will-trace-auroral-winds
  [6]
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/imag...
662995main_upper-atmosphere-MOS_full.jpg
  [7] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-r...
  [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket
  [9] https://www.andoyaspace.no/
  [10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P8C6EIVhqw
  [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethylalumin...
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barium
  [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strontium
  [14] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ionosphere/en/
  [15] https://youtu.be/YD4ghvmREI8
  [16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3q7SLCatIw
  [17]
https://qz.com/1224825/
how-do-solar-winds-cause-the-northern-lights-a-new-nasa-mission-wants-to-find-
out/
  [18] ap000318.html
  [19] ap171210.html
  [20] ap190407.html
  [21] archivepix.html
  [22] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [23] lib/aptree.html
  [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [25] calendar/allyears.html
  [26] /apod.rss
  [27] lib/edlinks.html
  [28] lib/about_apod.html
  [29] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [30] ap190409.html
  [31] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [33] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [34] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [35] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [36] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [37] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [38] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [39] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [40] http://www.mtu.edu/

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32)
 * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68)