One Role of Mars Orbiter: Check Possible Landing Sites

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) logo.

Feb. 8, 2017

Animation above: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been observing Mars since 2006, enabling it to document many types of changes, such as the way winds alter the appearance of this recent impact site. The orbiter's HiRISE camera took the four images used in this animated sequence in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona.

At an international workshop this week about where NASA's next Mars rover should land, most of the information comes from a prolific spacecraft that's been orbiting Mars since 2006.

Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the basis for evaluating eight candidate landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover mission. The landing site workshop this week in Monrovia, California, will narrow the Mars 2020 candidate list to four or fewer sites. MRO observations have been used to identify, characterize and certify past landing sites and are also in use to assess possible sites for future human-crew missions.

"From the point of view of evaluating potential landing sites, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the perfect spacecraft for getting all the information needed," said the workshop's co-chair, Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "You just can't overstate the importance of MRO for landing-site selection."

Engineers use MRO data to evaluate the safety of a candidate landing site. For example, stereoscopic 3-D information can reveal whether slopes are too steep, and some detailed images can show individual boulders big enough to be a landing hazard. Scientists use MRO data to evaluate how well a site could serve the research goals of a mission, such as the distribution of minerals that may have originated in wet environments.

"Missions on the surface of Mars give you the close-up view, but what you see depends on where you land. MRO searches the globe for the best sites," said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of JPL.

Images, terrain models and mineral maps from the orbiter help the teams that operate NASA's two active Mars rovers plan driving routes. The Mars 2020 team has already used MRO data to evaluate driving options in the eight candidate sites for that rover, which is on track for launch in the summer of 2020 and landing in early 2021. The site evaluations even use MRO's capability to study the atmosphere above each site and probe underground features with ground-penetrating radar.

In the progress toward selecting a landing site for a future human mission to Mars, NASA is using MRO data to evaluate about 45 suggested sites that could support human exploration zones, which are areas that could support astronauts as they explore up to a 60-mile radius.

Still, the hundreds of MRO observations targeted specifically for study of potential landing sites make up a small fraction of all the data the mission has provided about Mars. MRO has acquired more than 224,000 images and millions of other observations during its nearly 50,000 orbits around Mars. This month, the mission will reach and pass a milestone of 300 terabits of total science data sent to Earth from the orbiter. That tops the combined total from all other interplanetary missions, past and present. It is more data than would be included in four months of nonstop high-definition video.

"Whether it is looking at the surface, the subsurface or the atmosphere of the planet, MRO has viewed Mars from orbit with unprecedented spatial resolution, and that produces huge volumes of data," said MRO Project Scientist Rich Zurek of JPL."These data are a treasure trove for the whole Mars scientific community to study as we seek to answer a broad range of questions about the evolving habitability, geology and climate of Mars."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

One of the orbiter’s six instruments has provided images of 99 percent of Mars -- equivalent to 97 percent of Earth’s land area -- in resolution sufficient to show features smaller than a tennis court. One-fifth of this coverage area has been imaged at least twice, providing stereo, 3-D information. Another instrument has returned several multi-spectral data sets for mapping surface composition, including one covering nearly 85 percent of Mars.The highest-resolution camera onboard has returned images revealing details as small as a desk in swaths covering a carefully chosen 2.8 percent of Mars’s surface. That's more than the areas of Texas, California, and all the states east of the Mississippi River combined.

Other instruments on MRO have provided daily weather maps of the entire planet since 2006, more than 20,000 radar-observing strips to examine subsurface layers of ice and rock, and more than 8.8 million atmospheric profiles of temperatures, clouds and dust.

New discoveries flow from the copious MRO data. Some are:

•  Minerals mapped by MRO indicate a diversity of ancient water-related environments, many apparently habitable.

•  There is enough carbon-dioxide ice buried in the south polar cap that, if released, it could more than double the planet’s present atmosphere.

•  Mars is a dynamic planet today, with dust storms, moving sand dunes, avalanches, new gullies and fresh impact craters.

•  Reservoirs of buried water ice that are remnants of past climates, including buried glaciers, have been confirmed and discovered.

•  Dark flows that appear in warm seasons on some slopes suggest brine activity, though they are still enigmatic and hold scant water at most.

•  Mars’ north polar cap is geologically young -- about five million years old -- and contains unequally spaced layers of dust and ice that are apparently related to cyclical changes in the planet’s tilt.

•  Large dust storms during southern spring and summer appear to have a pattern of three types, in sequence.

•  Seasonal surface changes at mid to high latitudes appear related to freezing and thawing of carbon dioxide.

In addition to MRO’s observations, whether for landing-site assessment or direct science investigations, the orbiter also provides communication relay service for robots on the Martian surface, whether mobile or stationary. This month, MRO will reach and pass a milestone of 6,000 relay sessions for Mars-surface missions.

Related link:

Eight candidate landing sites for the Mars 2020: http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/

For additional information about MRO, visit: http://nasa.gov/mro and  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Laurie Cantillo/Dwayne Brown/Tony Greicius/JPL/Guy Webster.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Team Looks to Ancient Earth First to Study Hazy Exoplanets

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center logo.

Feb. 8, 2017

For astronomers trying to understand which distant planets might have habitable conditions, the role of atmospheric haze has been hazy. To help sort it out, a team of researchers has been looking to Earth – specifically Earth during the Archean era, an epic 1-1/2-billion-year period early in our planet’s history.

Earth’s atmosphere seems to have been quite different then, probably with little available oxygen but high levels of methane, ammonia and other organic chemicals. Geological evidence suggests that haze might have come and gone sporadically from the Archean atmosphere – and researchers aren’t quite sure why. The team reasoned that a better understanding of haze formation during the Archean era might help inform studies of hazy earthlike exoplanets.

“We like to say that Archean Earth is the most alien planet we have geochemical data for,” said Giada Arney of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory based at the University of Washington, Seattle. Arney is the lead author of two related papers published by the team.

Image above: When haze built up in the atmosphere of Archean Earth, the young planet might have looked like this artist's interpretation - a pale orange dot. A team led by Goddard scientists thinks the haze was self-limiting, cooling the surface by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Kelvins) – not enough to cause runaway glaciation. The team’s modeling suggests that atmospheric haze might be helpful for identifying earthlike exoplanets that could be habitable. Image Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy.

In the best case, haze in a planet’s atmosphere could serve up a smorgasbord of carbon-rich, or organic, molecules that could be transformed by chemical reactions into precursor molecules for life. Haze also might screen out much of the harmful UV radiation that can break down DNA.

In the worst case, haze could become so thick that very little light gets through. In this situation, the surface might get so cold it freezes completely. If a very thick haze occurred on Archean Earth, it might have had a profound effect, because when the era began roughly four billion years ago, the sun was fainter, emitting perhaps 80 percent of the light that it does now.

Arney and her colleagues put together sophisticated computer modeling to look at how haze affected the surface temperature of Archean Earth and, in turn, how the temperature influenced the chemistry in the atmosphere.

The new modeling indicates that as the haze got thicker, less sunlight would have gotten through, inhibiting the types of sunlight-driven chemical reactions needed to form more haze. This would lead to the shutdown of haze-formation chemistry, preventing the planet from undergoing runaway glaciation due to a very thick haze.

The team calls this self-limiting haze, and their work is the first to make the case that this is what occurred on Archean Earth – a finding published in the November 2016 issue of the journal Astrobiology. The researchers concluded that self-limiting haze could have cooled Archean Earth by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Kelvins) – enough to make a difference but not to freeze the surface completely.

“Our modeling suggests that a planet like hazy Archean Earth orbiting a star like the young sun would be cold,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, a Goddard scientist and a member of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory. “But we’re saying it would be cold like the Yukon in winter, not cold like modern-day Mars.”

Such a planet might be considered habitable, even if the mean global temperature is below freezing, as long as there is some liquid water on the surface.

In subsequent modeling, Arney and her colleagues looked at the effects of haze on planets that are like Archean Earth but orbiting several kinds of stars.

“The parent star controls whether a haze is more likely to form, and that haze can have multiple impacts on a planet’s habitability,” said co-author Victoria Meadows, the principal investigator for the Virtual Planetary Laboratory and an astronomy professor at the University of Washington.

It looks as if the Archean Earth hit a sweet spot where the haze served as a sunscreen layer for the planet. If the sun had been a bit warmer, as it is today, the modeling suggests the haze particles would have been larger – a result of temperature feedbacks influencing the chemistry – and would have formed more efficiently, but still would have offered some sun protection.

The same wasn’t true in all cases. The modeling showed that some stars produce so much UV radiation that haze cannot form. Haze did not cool planets orbiting all types of stars equally, either, according to the team’s results. Dim stars, such as M dwarfs, emit most of their energy at wavelengths that pass right through atmospheric haze; in the simulations, these planets experience little cooling from haze, so they benefit from haze’s UV shielding without a major drop in temperature.

For the right kind of star, though, the presence of haze in a planet’s atmosphere could help flag that world as a good candidate for closer study. The team’s simulations indicated that, for some instruments planned for future space telescopes, the spectral signature of haze would appear stronger than the signatures for some atmospheric gases, such as methane. These findings are available in the Astrophysical Journal as of Feb. 8, 2017.

“Haze may turn out to be very helpful as we try to narrow down which exoplanets are the most promising for habitability,” said Arney.

For more information about the NASA Astrobiology Institute, visit https://nai.nasa.gov/

Astrobiology: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6888/astrobiology

Exoplanets: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6889/exoplanets

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Elizabeth Zubritsky/Karl Hille.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CryoSat reveals lake outbursts beneath Antarctic ice

ESA - CryoSat Mission logo.

8 February 2017

A novel way of using ESA’s CryoSat mission has revealed how lakes beneath Thwaites Glacier drained into the Amundsen Sea – potentially the largest such outflow ever reported in this region of West Antarctica.

This new information is helping scientists understand more about what’s going on deep below the surface of the ice and what affects how fast the glaciers flow towards the ocean.

Thwaites and its neighbouring Pine Island Glacier are the fastest-receding glaciers on the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Four lakes under Thwaites

Although this huge sheet is some 2 km thick in places, much of its floor is well below sea level. This makes it is particularly vulnerable to change, especially where the warmer ocean waters meet the underside of the floating terminus of the glacier.

Understanding the movements of these glaciers is critical for predicting how the ice sheet may behave in the future and how it may affect sea level.

A paper published today in The Cryosphere explains how CryoSat measurements have been processed in a new way and reveal that, in 2013, four interlinked lakes under Thwaites drained into the ocean.

Lakes have been found under glaciers in many parts of Antarctica and are, indeed, commonly associated with fast-flowing glaciers. However, this is the first time they have been found and observed draining into the Amundsen Sea. In addition, this emptying is thought to happen only every 20–80 years.

Water below the ice sheet plays an important role in how quickly glaciers flow towards the sea, thought to be because a layer of meltwater reduces friction between the ice and the bedrock.

In addition, when channels form under the ice they lubricate the glacier bed.

Glacier speed West Antarctica

Benjamin Smith from the University of Washington and lead author of the paper said, “This is first time we’ve been able to monitor both elevation changes and ice speed in this kind of detail over such a large area.

“Without a satellite like CryoSat, we would have probably have missed the lake draining and we would have had to guess how the lake drainage might have affected the ice speed.

“Together, they tell us about how water moving at the glacier bed affects ice speed, and what processes we need to understand so that we are better equipped to predict the future of Thwaites.”

Noel Gourmelen from the University of Edinburgh explained, “Repeat observations from CryoSat over Thwaites revealed that the surface of the ice subsided by several metres as water drained away from the four lakes under the ice. The lakes totalled an area of about 700 sq km.

“On average, Thwaites carries about 135 cubic km of ice to the sea every year, but drainage from these lakes released an extra 3.5 cubic km of freshwater.

One of four lakes under the glacier

“In addition, the speed of the glacier increased by about 10% and would have contributed to a discharge of around 150 cubic km a year between 2013 and 2014.”

Drainage is estimated to have peaked at about 240 cubic m a second, possibly the largest outflow of meltwater ever reported from subglacial lakes in this region. This peak rate is about four times faster than the River Thames in England discharges to the North Sea each year.

Before this discovery, scientists had thought that this part of the ice sheet did not store water in lakes beneath the surface for very long because abrupt drainage had not been seen before in the area.

Mark Drinkwater, head of ESA’s Earth observation mission science, said, “Previous studies have investigated if CryoSat could be used for monitoring small vertical displacements associated with these events.

ESA's ice mission

“The main issue has been the limited coverage of standard altimeter measurements. But thanks to new processing techniques, the capability of using CryoSat to both discover and monitor Antarctic subglacial lakes has vastly increased.

Tommaso Parrinello, ESA’s CryoSat mission manager, added, “CryoSat again is proving what a versatile satellite it is. Now we also have the Copernicus Sentinel-1, with both providing powerful tools for developing further understanding of the relationship between lake drainage and ice dynamics in Antarctica.”

The Cryosphere:

Connected subglacial lake drainage beneath Thwaites Glacier: http://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/451/2017/

Related links:

University of Edinburgh–School of Geosciences: http://www.ed.ac.uk/geosciences

Noel Gourmelen talks new processing techniques with CryoSat: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2016/05/Earth_from_Space_New_processing_techniques_with_CryoSat

University of Washington–Applied Physics Laboratory: http://www.apl.washington.edu/

University of Washington–Earth and Space Sciences: http://www.ess.washington.edu/

CryoTop Evolution: http://cryotop-evolution.org/

Sentinel-1: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1

Support to Science Element: http://due.esrin.esa.int/stse/

CryoSat: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/CryoSat

Access CryoSat data: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/cryosat

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab/University of Edinburgh/N. Gourmelen/contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016)/CPOM University of Leeds/A. Hogg/University of Edinburgh/N. Gourmelen.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Finds Planets of Red Dwarf Stars May Face Oxygen Loss in Habitable Zones

NASA - Kepler Space Telescope patch.

Feb. 8, 2017

The search for life beyond Earth starts in habitable zones, the regions around stars where conditions could potentially allow liquid water – which is essential for life as we know it – to pool on a planet’s surface. New NASA research suggests some of these zones might not actually be able to support life due to frequent stellar eruptions – which spew huge amounts of stellar material and radiation out into space – from young red dwarf stars.

Now, an interdisciplinary team of NASA scientists wants to expand how habitable zones are defined, taking into account the impact of stellar activity, which can threaten an exoplanet’s atmosphere with oxygen loss. This research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Feb. 6, 2017.

"If we want to find an exoplanet that can develop and sustain life, we must figure out which stars make the best parents,” said Vladimir Airapetian, lead author of the paper and a solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’re coming closer to understanding what kind of parent stars we need.”

To determine a star’s habitable zone, scientists have traditionally considered how much heat and light the star emits. Stars more massive than our sun produce more heat and light, so the habitable zone must be farther out. Smaller, cooler stars yield close-in habitable zones.

But along with heat and visible light, stars emit X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, and produce stellar eruptions such as flares and coronal mass ejections – collectively called space weather. One possible effect of this radiation is atmospheric erosion, in which high-energy particles drag atmospheric molecules – such as hydrogen and oxygen, the two ingredients for water – out into space. Airapetian and his team's new model for habitable zones now takes this effect into account.

Planets of Red Dwarf Stars May Face Oxygen Loss in Habitable Zones

Video above: In this artist’s concept, X-ray and extreme ultraviolet light from a young red dwarf star cause ions to escape from an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Scientists have developed a model that estimates the oxygen ion escape rate on planets around red dwarfs, which plays an important role in determining an exoplanet’s habitability.
Video Credits: NASA Goddard/Conceptual Image Lab, Michael Lentz, animator/Genna Duberstein, producer.

The search for habitable planets often hones in on red dwarfs, as these are the coolest, smallest and most numerous stars in the universe – and therefore relatively amenable to small planet detection.

"On the downside, red dwarfs are also prone to more frequent and powerful stellar eruptions than the sun," said William Danchi, a Goddard astronomer and co-author of the paper. "To assess the habitability of planets around these stars, we need to understand how these various effects balance out."

Another important habitability factor is a star's age, say the scientists, based on observations they've gathered from NASA’s Kepler mission. Every day, young stars produce superflares, powerful flares and eruptions at least 10 times more powerful than those observed on the sun. On their older, matured counterparts resembling our middle-aged sun today, such superflares are only observed once every 100 years.

“When we look at young red dwarfs in our galaxy, we see they’re much less luminous than our sun today,” Airapetian said. “By the classical definition, the habitable zone around red dwarfs must be 10 to 20 times closer-in than Earth is to the sun. Now we know these red dwarf stars generate a lot of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet emissions at the habitable zones of exoplanets through frequent flares and stellar storms.”

Superflares cause atmospheric erosion when high-energy X-ray and extreme ultraviolet emissions first break molecules into atoms and then ionize atmospheric gases. During ionization, radiation strikes the atoms and knocks off electrons. Electrons are much lighter than the newly formed ions, so they escape gravity’s pull far more readily and race out into space.

Opposites attract, so as more and more negatively charged electrons are generated, they create a powerful charge separation that lures positively charged ions out of the atmosphere in a process called ion escape.

“We know oxygen ion escape happens on Earth at a smaller scale since the sun exhibits only a fraction of the activity of younger stars,” said Alex Glocer, a Goddard astrophysicist and co-author of the paper. “To see how this effect scales when you get more high-energy input like you’d see from young stars, we developed a model.”

volcanic activity on exoplanet

The model estimates the oxygen escape on planets around red dwarfs, assuming they don’t compensate with volcanic activity or comet bombardment. Various earlier atmospheric erosion models indicated hydrogen is most vulnerable to ion escape. As the lightest element, hydrogen easily escapes into space, presumably leaving behind an atmosphere rich with heavier elements such as oxygen and nitrogen.

But when the scientists accounted for superflares, their new model indicates the violent storms of young red dwarfs generate enough high-energy radiation to enable the escape of even oxygen and nitrogen – building blocks for life’s essential molecules.   

“The more X-ray and extreme ultraviolet energy there is, the more electrons are generated and the stronger the ion escape effect becomes,” Glocer said. “This effect is very sensitive to the amount of energy the star emits, which means it must play a strong role in determining what is and is not a habitable planet.”

Considering oxygen escape alone, the model estimates a young red dwarf could render a close-in exoplanet uninhabitable within a few tens to a hundred million years. The loss of both atmospheric hydrogen and oxygen would reduce and eliminate the planet’s water supply before life would have a chance to develop.

“The results of this work could have profound implications for the atmospheric chemistry of these worlds,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, a Goddard space scientist not involved with the study. “The team’s conclusions will impact our ongoing studies of missions that would search for signs of life in the chemical composition of those atmospheres.”

Modeling the oxygen loss rate is the first step in the team’s efforts to expand the classical definition of habitability into what they call space weather-affected habitable zones. When exoplanets orbit a mature star with a mild space weather environment, the classical definition is sufficient. When the host star exhibits X-ray and extreme ultraviolet levels greater than seven to 10 times the average emissions from our sun, then the new definition applies. The team’s future work will include modeling nitrogen escape, which may be comparable to oxygen escape since nitrogen is just slightly lighter than oxygen.

The new habitability model has implications for the recently discovered planet orbiting the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor. Airapetian and his team applied their model to the roughly Earth-sized planet, dubbed Proxima b, which orbits Proxima Centauri 20 times closer than Earth is to the sun.

Kepler Space Telescope

Considering the host star’s age and the planet’s proximity to its host star, the scientists expect that Proxima b is subjected to torrents of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation from superflares occurring roughly every two hours. They estimate oxygen would escape Proxima b’s atmosphere in 10 million years. Additionally, intense magnetic activity and stellar wind – the continuous flow of charged particles from a star – exacerbate already harsh space weather conditions. The scientists concluded that it’s quite unlikely Proxima b is habitable.   

“We have pessimistic results for planets around young red dwarfs in this study, but we also have a better understanding of which stars have good prospects for habitability,” Airapetian said. “As we learn more about what we need from a host star, it seems more and more that our sun is just one of those perfect parent stars, to have supported life on Earth.”

The Astrophysical Journal Letters: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/836/1/L3

Related articles & links:

Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/05/nasa-solar-storms-may-have-been-key-to.html

ESO Discovers Earth-Size Planet in Habitable Zone of Nearest Star: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/08/planet-found-in-habitable-zone-around.html

NASA's Swift Mission Observes Mega Flares from a Mini Star: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2014/09/nasas-swift-mission-observes-mega.html

In the Zone: How Scientists Search for Habitable Planets: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2013/07/in-zone-how-scientists-search-for.html

Astrobiology: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6888/astrobiology

Exoplanets: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6889/exoplanets

Kepler and K2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Lina Tran/Rob Garner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Blue jets studied from Space Station

ESA - iriss Mission patch.

8 February 2017

For years, their existence has been debated: elusive electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere that sport names such as red sprites, blue jets, pixies and elves. Reported by pilots, they are difficult to study as they occur above thunderstorms.

Blue jets studied from Space Station

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen during his mission on the International Space Station in 2015 was asked to take pictures over thunderstorms with the most sensitive camera on the orbiting outpost to look for these brief features.

Denmark’s National Space Institute has now published the results, confirming many kilometre-wide blue flashes around 18 km altitude, including a pulsating blue jet reaching 40 km. A video recorded by Andreas as he flew over the Bay of Bengal at 28 800 km/h on the Station shows the electrical phenomena clearly – a first of its kind.

Andreas Mogensen captures gigantic lightning from the International Space Station

Satellites had probed these events but their viewing angle is not ideal for gathering data on the scale of the blue jets and smaller blue discharges. In contrast, the Station’s lower orbit is ideally placed to capture the sprites and jets.

Andreas aimed for cloud turrets – cloud pillars extending into the upper atmosphere – and shot a 160 second video showing 245 blue flashes from the top of a turret that drifted from the Bay of Bengal’s thunderstorm.

Cloud turret

The blue discharges and jets are examples of a little-understood part of our atmosphere. Electrical storms reach into the stratosphere and have implications for how our atmosphere protects us from radiation. 

Permanent observation

Lightning seen from Space Station

This experiment confirms that the Space Station is a suitable base for observing these phenomena. As a follow-up, the Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor is being prepared for launch later this year for installation outside Europe’s Columbus laboratory to monitor thunderstorms continuously to gather information about such ‘transient luminous events’.

Red sprites and blue jets

Andreas concludes, “It is not every day that you get to capture a new weather phenomenon on film, so I am very pleased with the result – but even more so that researchers will be able to investigate these intriguing thunderstorms in more detail soon.”

Related links:

Denmark’s National Space Institute published results: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL071311/full

Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor: http://www.asim.dk/payload.php

The iriss mission:

A ‘sprint’ mission: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/iriss/A_sprint_mission

iriss mission blog: http://blogs.esa.int/iriss

Connect with Andreas Mogensen: http://andreasmogensen.esa.int/

Andreas Mogensen blog (in Danish): http://videnskab.dk/profil/andreas-mogensen

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Station Prepped for Science Gear from Japan and SpaceX

ISS - Expedition 50 Mission patch.

February 7, 2017

A new high-definition Earth observation video camera will be installed on the outside of Japan’s Kibo lab module later this week. The Expedition 50 crew is also getting the International Space Station ready for the next SpaceX Dragon resupply ship.

An HDTV camera delivered aboard Japan’s HTV-6 cargo craft in December is being readied for its deployment outside Kibo. The video camera will be staged inside the Kibo airlock today before depressurization and leak checks begin. The HDTV camera will then be robotically installed on a platform outside Kibo called the Exposed Facility where it will be used for Earth observations.

Image above: The space station’s solar arrays and the Earth’s limb were pictured Feb. 2, 2017,as the Expedition 50 crew orbited over the southern Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

The astronauts are also getting communications gear ready to assist with the rendezvous and approach of the tenth SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission. Dragon is planned to launch later this month from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA is hosting a media teleconference Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST highlighting new experiments being delivered aboard Dragon. The advanced space research will include studies to fight a wide range of diseases, observe Earth’s climate and test autonomous rendezvous capabilities.

Related links:

SpaceX Dragon: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/spacex.html

Japan’s HTV-6 cargo craft: http://go.nasa.gov/2gt6yn6

Exposed Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/jem.html

Autonomous rendezvous capabilities: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1995.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Antarctica’s Changing Larsen Ice Shelf

NASA & NOAA - Landsat-7 Mission patch.

Feb. 7, 2017

The Larsen Ice Shelf is situated along the northeastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. In the past three decades, two large sections of the ice shelf (Larsen A and B) have collapsed. A third section (Larsen C) seems like it may be on a similar trajectory, with a new iceberg poised to break away soon: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89257

Image above: The rift in Larsen C measures about 100 meters (300 feet) wide and cuts about half a kilometer (one-third of a mile) deep—completely through to the bottom of the ice shelf. While the rift is long and growing longer, it does not yet reach across the entire shelf. When that happens, Larsen C will shed an iceberg about the size of Delaware.

The mosaic above, centered on the northern part of Larsen Ice Shelf, is comprised of four natural-color satellite images captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on Jan. 6 and 8, 2016. It shows the remnant of Larsen B, along with the Larsen A and smaller embayments to the north covered by a much thinner layer of sea ice. The remaining shelf appears white with some deep rifts within it.

Larsen crack 2016, animation by Sentinel-1 (ESA)

Areas with sea ice anchored to the coastline or ice shelf—fast ice—are light blue where covered with melt water and white where covered by wind-blown snow. The ocean is dark, nearly black, where it is not covered by sea ice. The white areas near where glaciers meet the sea have multitudes of small icebergs called bergy bits that broke off from land ice.

Extended caption and annotated images: NASA's Earth Observatory: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89588

Landsat: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/main/index.html

Images Credits: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey/Caption: Adam Voiland/Text: Sarah Loff/Animation: ESA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch