TheInternational Space Station(ISS ) has a front - row seat to all the natural action in Earth’satmosphere . Using this unique advantage detail , there ’s a raw mission to analyze the dazzle thunderstorm of Earth ’s upper ambiance using its freshly installed Atmosphere - Space Interactions Monitor ( ASIM ) .
Also known as theSpace Storm Hunter , this art object of kit consists of a collection of optical cameras , photometers , X - ray sensor , and gamma - shaft sensor . It looks to supply scientists with some rare perceptiveness into how heavy electrical storm affect the Earth ’s climate , atmosphere , ionosphere , and its radiation sickness belts . Hopefully , it will produce some unbelievable imagery too .
“ high-pitched - elevation observation allows us to study these events without the obscuring cloud , ” principal researcher Torsten Neubert of the National Space Institute of the Technical University of Denmark said ina statement .
“ With ASIM we will better understand the complex processes of upper - atmospheric lightning , which are also elements of ordinary lightning , although they take on dissimilar anatomy . This understanding can better engineering science for detecting ordinary lightning . ”
Thunderstorms in the upper atmosphere are very unlike to the crackling flashes of lightning you see during a leaden rainstorm on a hot evening . Instead , you ’ll see a number of other than brightly - color bursts of electric energy , known assprites , elf , and giants .
Sprites are instant of light that come out mellow up above thunderstorm clouds . They typically look as a wispy violent or purple glow . The red coloring comes from the excited electrons clash with nitrogen molecules in the upper atmosphere and ionizing them . A single thunderstorm could produce several hundred of these in a night .
cruise in low - globe orbit at an altitude of around 400 kilometers ( 248 miles ) , the ISS is in a prize position to observe upper - ambiance thunderstorms , which generally occur under an altitude of 100 kilometers ( 62 miles ) in the Earth ’s ionosphere , mesosphere , and stratosphere . It also offer sodding coverage of tropical and subtropical regions of Earth , usually where the most intense thunderstorms form , which have been heavy to access .
“ We will learn more about electrical storm clouds and more of the fine - bodily structure of the stratosphere and mesosphere , of which little is known , ” Neubert total .
“ These are solid scientific consequence document for the first fourth dimension how active the tops of thunderclouds can be . "
