The Secrets behind Earth's Multi-colored Glow

The Secrets behind Earth's Multi-colored Glow

What does our planet look like from space? Most are familiar with the beloved images of the blue marble or pale blue dot -- Earth from 18,000 and 3.7 billion miles away, respectively. But closer to home, within the nearest region of space, you might encounter an unfamiliar sight. If you peer down on Earth from just 300 miles above the surface, near the orbit of the International Space Station, you can see vibrant swaths of red and green or purple and yellow light emanating from the upper atmosphere. This is airglow. Airglow occurs when atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, excited by sunlight, emit light in order to shed their 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, they eject a particle of light -- called a photon -- in order to relax again. The phenomenon is similar to auroras, but where auroras are driven by high-energy particles originating from the solar wind, airglow is energized by day-to-day solar radiation. For more information: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/why-nasa-watches-airglow-the-colors-of-the-upper-atmospheric-wind Music: "Nature Daydream" by Laurent Dury [SACEM], "Grape Picking" by Laurent Dury [SACEM] from Killer Tracks Complete transcript available. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12902 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard