If I were to ask you where space was, you'd probably point upward and that would be, roughly, correct. To be sure, we all know that space is above us—at least, I hope we do—but defining where our atmosphere ends and space begins is not an easy task. The atmosphere doesn't stop once you get high enough; it just gradually gets thinner and thinner the higher you go. Even 250 miles up where the ISS orbits, there's still enough of an atmosphere to force NASA to occasionally boost the station to a higher orbit.
This thin, upper layer of our atmosphere is called the ionosphere, and it's mostly filled with electrified plasma. Even though it's a part of our planet, much about the ionosphere is not well understood. That's why NASA is launching a new spacecraft—the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)—into orbit to try and learn more about this mysterious region of space.
The ionosphere is home to many charged particles of plasma, which orbit the planet in complex currents that are hard to predict. These plasma currents can cause all sorts of 'space weather' phenomena. The most well known of these are the auroras, but plasma currents can also trigger high-altitude electrical storms that can interfere with satellites and cause power outages.
"The conditions in our space environment—space weather—is something we need to be able to forecast," says ICON's principal investigator Thomas Immel. But forecasting space weather is not an easy task. "It's difficult to predict conditions in the ionosphere tomorrow based on what we measure today," says Immel.
That's where ICON comes in. ICON has a suite of tools designed to measure these plasma currents, like cameras to take photos of the currents and sensors to track their movements. The hope is that data from these instruments can be combined to accurately forecast space weather patterns in advance.
With any luck, the astronauts at the ISS might finally enjoy the same kind of accurate weather forecasts we Earth-bound people have.
This thin, upper layer of our atmosphere is called the ionosphere, and it's mostly filled with electrified plasma. Even though it's a part of our planet, much about the ionosphere is not well understood. That's why NASA is launching a new spacecraft—the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)—into orbit to try and learn more about this mysterious region of space.
The ionosphere is home to many charged particles of plasma, which orbit the planet in complex currents that are hard to predict. These plasma currents can cause all sorts of 'space weather' phenomena. The most well known of these are the auroras, but plasma currents can also trigger high-altitude electrical storms that can interfere with satellites and cause power outages.
"The conditions in our space environment—space weather—is something we need to be able to forecast," says ICON's principal investigator Thomas Immel. But forecasting space weather is not an easy task. "It's difficult to predict conditions in the ionosphere tomorrow based on what we measure today," says Immel.
That's where ICON comes in. ICON has a suite of tools designed to measure these plasma currents, like cameras to take photos of the currents and sensors to track their movements. The hope is that data from these instruments can be combined to accurately forecast space weather patterns in advance.
With any luck, the astronauts at the ISS might finally enjoy the same kind of accurate weather forecasts we Earth-bound people have.