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Mapping planet Earth for better positioning: ESA’s GENESIS mission
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By European Space Agency
Image: This striking high-resolution image offers an in-depth view of central Paris, allowing you to explore and zoom into the city’s most captivating areas in exceptional detail. View the full article
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By NASA
Crane operator Rebekah Tolatovicz, a shift mechanical technician lead for Artic Slope Regional Corporation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, operates a 30-ton crane to lift the agency’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the recently renovated altitude chamber to the Final Assembly and Systems Testing, or FAST, cell inside NASA Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on April 27.
During her most recent lift July 10, Tolatovicz helped transfer Orion back to the FAST cell following vacuum chamber qualification testing in the altitude chamber earlier this month. This lift is one of around 250 annual lifts performed at NASA Kennedy by seven operator/directors and 14 crane operators on the ASRC Orion team.
“At the time of the spacecraft lift, I focus solely on what’s going on in the moment of the operation,” explains Tolatovicz. “Listening for the commands from the lift director, making sure everyone is safe, verifying the vehicle is clear, and ensuring the crane is moving correctly.”
All Orion crane operators are certified after classroom and on-the-job training focusing on areas such as rigging, weight and center of gravity, mastering crane controls, crane securing, assessing safety issues, and emergency procedures. Once certified, they progress through a series of the different lifts required for Orion spacecraft operations, from simple moves to the complex full spacecraft lift.
“It’s not until after the move is complete and the vehicle is secured that I have a moment to think about how awesome it is to be a part of history on the Orion Program and do what I get to do every day with a team of the most amazing people,” Tolatovicz said.
Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Stevenson
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By NASA
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. This long-duration photograph was taken at night from the orbital complex as it soared 258 miles above western China. NASA and Boeing will host a news conference with mission leadership at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 25, to provide the latest status of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test aboard the International Space Station. NASA previously planned an audio-only media teleconference to host the discussion.
The agency will provide live coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Participants include:
Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Commercial Crew Program, Boeing United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the newsroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston no later than 9:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 25, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson or NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov by 10:30 a.m. the day of the event. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
Engineering teams with NASA and Boeing recently completed ground hot fire testing of a Starliner reaction control system thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. The test series involved firing the engine through similar in-flight conditions the spacecraft experienced during its approach to the space station, as well as various stress-case firings for what is expected during Starliner’s undocking and the deorbit burn that will position the spacecraft for a landing in the southwestern United States. Teams are analyzing the data from these tests, and leadership plans to discuss initial findings during the briefing.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the orbiting laboratory on June 6, after lifting off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5. Since their arrival, the duo has been integrated with the Expedition 71 crew, performing scientific research and maintenance activities as needed.
As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the mission is an end-to-end test of the Starliner system. Following a successful return to Earth, NASA will begin the process of certifying Starliner for rotational missions to the International Space Station. Through partnership with American private industry, NASA is opening access to low Earth orbit and the space station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities.
For NASA’s blog and more information about the mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steve Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.sempsrott@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
Leah Cheshier / Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
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By NASA
ICON, shown in this artist’s concept, studied the frontiers of space, the dynamic zone high in our atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. NASA/Goddard/Conceptual Image Lab NASA’s ICON mission studied the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere. ICON provided critical insights into interplay between space weather and Earth’s weather. The mission gathered unprecedented detail of airglow, showed a relationship between the atmosphere’s ions and Earth’s magnetic field lines, and provided the first concrete observation to confirm Earth’s long-theorized ionospheric dynamo. Nearly a year after ICON accomplished its primary mission, communication was lost in November 2022 for unclear reasons. NASA formally concluded the mission after several months of troubleshooting could not regain contact. After contributing to many important findings on the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission has come to an end. ICON launched in October 2019 and after completing its two-year mission objectives in December 2021, it operated as an extended mission for another year.
“The ICON mission has truly lived up to its name,” said Joseph Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “ICON not only successfully completed and exceeded its primary mission objectives, it also provided critical insights into the ionosphere and the interplay between space and terrestrial weather.”
The ICON spacecraft studied a part of our planet’s outermost layer of the atmosphere, called the ionosphere. From there, ICON investigated what events impact the ionosphere, including Earth’s weather from below and space weather from above.
The ionosphere is the lowest boundary of space, located between 55 miles to 360 miles above Earth’s surface. It is made up of a sea of particles that have been ionized, a mix of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons called plasma. This frontier of space is a dynamic and busy region, home to many satellites — including the International Space Station — and is a conduit for radio communications and GPS signals.
Video explaining the features of the ionosphere, Earth’s outmost layer of the atmosphere. It is home to the aurora, the International Space Station, a variety of satellites, and radio communication waves.
NASA/Goddard/Conceptual Image Lab/Krystofer Kim Both satellites and signals can be disrupted by the complex interactions of terrestrial and space weather. Studying and understanding the ionosphere is crucial to understanding space weather and its effects on our technology.
The ICON mission captured unprecedented data about the ionosphere with direct measurements of the charged gas in its immediate surroundings alongside images of one of the ionosphere’s most stunning features — airglow.
ICON tracked the colorful bands as they moved through the ionosphere. Airglow is created by a process similar to what creates the aurora. However, airglow occurs around the world, not just the northern and southern latitudes where auroras are typically found. Although airglow is normally dim, ICON’s instruments were specially designed to capture even the faintest glow to build a picture of the ionosphere’s density, composition, and structure.
The lowest reaches of space glow with bright bands of color called airglow. NASA Through the principle of Doppler shift, ICON’s sensitive imagers also detected the motion of the atmosphere as it glowed. “It’s like measuring a train’s speed by detecting the change in the pitch of its horn — but with light,” said Thomas J. Immel, ICON mission lead at the University of California, Berkeley. The mission was specifically designed to perform this technically difficult measurement.
A New Ionospheric Perspective
The ICON mission’s comprehensive view of the upper atmosphere provided valuable data for scientists to unravel for years to come. For instance, its measurements showed how the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption disrupted electrical currents in the ionosphere.
“ICON was able to capture the speed of the volcanic eruption, allowing us to directly see how it affected the motion of charged particles in the ionosphere,” Immel said. “This was a clear example of the connection between tropical weather and ionospheric structure. ICON showed us how things that happen in terrestrial weather have a direct correlation with events in space.”
Another scientific breakthrough was ICON’s measurements of the motion of ions in the atmosphere and their relationship with Earth’s magnetic field lines. “It was truly unique,” Immel remarked. “ICON’s measurements of the motion of ions in the atmosphere was scientifically transformational in our understanding of behavior in the ionosphere.”
Visualization of ICON orbiting Earth and taking measurements of the wind speed (green arrows) and ion fluctuation and direction (red lines) at the geomagnetic field lines (purple lines). When the wind changes direction, the ion fluctuation changes to flow downward.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/William T. Bridgman With ICON’s help, scientists better understand how these interactions drive a process called the ionospheric dynamo. The dynamo, which lies at the bottom of the ionosphere, remained a mystery for decades because it is difficult to observe.
ICON provided the first concrete observation of winds fueling the dynamo and how this influences space weather. Unpredictable terrestrial winds move plasma around the ionosphere, sending the charged particles shooting out into space or plummeting toward Earth. This electrically charged tug-of-war between the ionosphere and Earth’s electromagnetic fields acts as a generator, creating complex electric and magnetic fields that can affect both technology and the ionosphere itself.
“No one had ever seen this before,” Immel said. “ICON finally and conclusively provided experimental confirmation of the wind dynamo theory.”
An Iconic Legacy
On Nov. 25, 2022, the ICON team lost contact with the spacecraft. Communication with the spacecraft could not be established, even after performing a power cycle reset using a built-in command loss timer. Though the spacecraft remains intact, other troubleshooting techniques were unable to re-establish contact between the ICON spacecraft and mission operators.
“ICON’s legacy will live on through the breakthrough knowledge it provided while it was active and the vast dataset from its observations that will continue to yield new science,” Westlake said. “ICON serves as a foundation for new missions to come.”
By Desiree Apodaca
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact: Sarah Frazier
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jul 24, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 Min Read Watch Carbon Dioxide Move Through Earth’s Atmosphere
Global CO2 ppm for January-March of 2020. This camera move orbits Earth from a distance. Credits:
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Earth (ESD) Earth Home Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers What we’re looking at:
This global map shows concentrations of carbon dioxide as the gas moved through Earth’s atmosphere from January through March 2020, driven by wind patterns and atmospheric circulation.
Because of the model’s high resolution, you can zoom in and see carbon dioxide emissions rising from power plants, fires, and cities, then spreading across continents and oceans.
Global CO2 ppm for January-March of 2020. This camera move orbits Earth from a distance. Download this visualization from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5196 Credits: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio “As policymakers and as scientists, we’re trying to account for where carbon comes from and how that impacts the planet,” said climate scientist Lesley Ott at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “You see here how everything is interconnected by these different weather patterns.”
You see here how everything is interconnected by these different weather patterns.
Lesley Ott
NASA Climate scientist
What are the sources of CO2?
Over China, the United States, and South Asia, the majority of emissions came from power plants, industrial facilities, and cars and trucks, Ott said. Meanwhile, in Africa and South America, emissions largely stemmed from fires, especially those related to land management, controlled agricultural burns and deforestation, along with the burning of oil and coal. Fires release carbon dioxide as they burn.
Why does the map look like it’s pulsing?
Global CO2 ppm for January-March of 2020. This camera move zooms in on the eastern United States. Download this visualization from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5196 Credits: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio There are two primary reasons for the pulsing: First, fires have a clear day-night cycle. They typically flare up during the day and die down at night.
Second, you’re seeing the absorption and release of carbon dioxide as trees and plants photosynthesize. Earth’s land and oceans absorb about 50% of carbon dioxide; these are natural carbon sinks. Plants take up carbon dioxide during the day as they photosynthesize and then release it at night through respiration. Notice that much of the pulsing occurred in regions with lots of trees, like mid- or high-latitude forests. And because the data were taken during the Southern Hemisphere summer, you see more pulsing in the tropics and South America, where it was the active growing season.
Some of the pulsing also comes from the planetary boundary layer — the lowest 3,000 feet (900 meters) of the atmosphere — which rises as the Earth’s surface is heated by sunlight during the day, then falls as it cools at night.
The data that drives it:
The map was created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio using a model called GEOS, short for the Goddard Earth Observing System. GEOS is a high-resolution weather model, powered by supercomputers, that is used to simulate what was happening in the atmosphere — including storm systems, cloud formations, and other natural events. GEOS pulls in billions of data points from ground observations and satellite instruments, such as the Terra satellite’s MODIS and the Suomi-NPP satellite’s VIIRS instruments. Its resolution is more than 100 times greater than a typical weather model.
Ott and other climate scientists wanted to know what GEOS would show if it was used to model the movement and density of carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere.
“We had this opportunity to say: can we tag along and see what really high-resolution CO2 looks like?” Ott said. “We had a feeling we were going to see plume structures and things that we’ve never been able to see when we do these coarser resolution simulations.”
Her instinct was right. “Just seeing how persistent the plumes were and the interaction of the plumes with weather systems, it was tremendous.”
Why it matters:
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/ Katie Jepson We can’t tackle climate change without confronting the fact that we’re emitting massive amounts of CO2, and it’s warming the atmosphere, Ott said.
Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas and the primary reason for Earth’s rising temperatures. As CO2 builds in the atmosphere, it warms our planet. This is clear in the numbers. 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Most of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the past decade.
All this carbon dioxide isn’t harmful to air quality. In fact, we need some carbon dioxide to keep the planet warm enough for life to exist. But when too much CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere, the Earth warms too much and too fast. That’s what has been happening for at least the past half century. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased from approximately 278 parts per million in 1750, the beginning of the industrial era, to 427 parts per million in May 2024.
Read More: Emissions from Fossil Fuels Continue to Rise
Human activities have “unequivocally caused warming,” according to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This warming is leading to all sorts of changes to our climate, including more intense storms, wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels.
Inside the SVS studio:
Carbon dioxide exists everywhere in the atmosphere, and the challenge for AJ Christensen, a senior visualization designer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was to show the differences in density of this invisible gas.
“We didn’t want people to get the impression that there was no carbon dioxide in these sparser regions,” Christensen said. “But we also wanted to really highlight the dense regions because that’s the interesting feature of the data. We were trying to show that there’s a lot of density over New York and Beijing.”
Data visualizations help people understand how Earth’s systems work, and they can help scientists find patterns in massive datasets, Ott said.
“What’s happening is you’re stitching together this very complex array of models to make use of the different satellite data, and that’s helping us fill in this broad puzzle of all the processes that control carbon dioxide,” Ott said. “The hope is that if we understand greenhouse gases really well today, we’ll be able to build models that better predict them over the next decades or even centuries.”
For more information and data on greenhouse gases, visit the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center.
About the Author
Jenny Marder
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Last Updated Jul 23, 2024 Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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