SPACECRAFT SENDS BEST IMAGES YET OF EARTH'S NORTHERN, SOUTHERN LIGHTS

May 23, 1996 / posted May 28, 1996
Source: NASA HQ Public Affairs Office
Scientists working with NASA's recently launched Polar satellite today released the best images ever made from space of the Earth's aurora. The images are being presented at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore, MD.

The new spacecraft data show remarkably clear views of the aurora borealis in the daytime. The new images and information will help scientists to better understand the transport of energy from the Sun to the Earth by the solar wind. POLAR also has acquired the first global images of the Earth's aurora in X-rays.

Data from the spacecraft is transmitted several times each day via the Deep Space Network to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, where it is processed and distributed for analysis. Goddard is managing the program and is responsible for operating the spacecraft.

Polar was launched from Vandenberg AFB, CA, on Feb. 24. It is orbiting the Earth every 17-1/2 hours in a large, elliptical orbit that carries the satellite high over the northern polar region. The satellite is a principal component of NASA's Global Geospace Science program, the first phase of NASA's Solar Connections Program and a primary U.S. contribution to the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program.

The images from Polar may be viewed and downloaded from the Internet at the following URL:

http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/newsroom/flash/flash.htm

Editor's Note: News media may obtain copies of these images by contacting the Goddard Public Affairs Office.

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