A NASA astronaut snapped this combo package from an aurora and aerial glass in March 2020.
NASA
Some images of the Earth, shown from the International Space Station, show a soft, glowing light curve across our planet. Some leave wispy, ethereal (and often green) aurora. A spectacular ISS image shared by NASA shows both.
“Wavy green, red-covered whistles of aurora borealis appear to cross the muted red-yellow band of air glow as the ISS travels just south of the Alaskan Peninsula,” NASA’s Earth Observatory wrote. The twinkling lights below mark cities in Canada, while stars break the darkness above.
A NASA astronaut snapped the image in March and the Earth Observatory shared it as his Image of the Day on Sunday.
The two atmospheric phenomena may be similar when it comes to their locations and inner glory, but NASA showed how they come from different sources.
Airglow comes from “the emission of light from chemical interactions between oxygen, nitrogen, and other molecules in the upper atmosphere.” Auroras are the result of solar particles mingling with the Earth’s magnetic field.
NASA has made a study of aerial glass. “It can help scientists learn about the motion of particles near the Earth-space interface, including the connections between space water and Earth,” NASA said in a 2018 imagery.
From a purely aesthetic point of view, both aerial glass and auroras are valuable views of subjects. The combination of the two is very special.
