Space station photos to offer novel view of northern lights
Scientists are going to start snapping photos and shooting video of the northern lights from a unique angle — above.
Astronauts on the International Space Station are planning to take the images from orbit over the next six weeks in co-ordination with the Auroramax online observatory in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
Auroramax project manager Mike Greffen, with the University of Calgary’s astronomy department, just hopes the busy astronauts can fit in the extra chore.
“The astronauts on the space station don’t have a lot of free time. They’re highly scheduled,” Greffen said. “So at a time when they have an opportunity to take the photos, they have to be over Canada and there has to be northern lights present. But pending availability and Mother Nature the photos should be available quite soon.”
The images should be spectacular, he said.
“It’s absolutely a different perspective. You’re above them but almost in them,” Greffen said. “The curtain, the region where you get visible emissions is from about 90 to 100 kilometres, right up to the altitude of the space station. So they’re flying just above them or through them You’re often looking at them from the side. You can see the countries underneath them. And they still dance and move and are dynamic.”
The space station orbits about 370 kilometres above the Earth.
Images taken by the astronauts will be beamed back and within 48 hours, members of the public will be able to compare them online with images taken from the ground in Yellowknife.
“What I’m really excited about is the public outreach aspect,” Greffen said. “The idea that we have a camera that is not only useful for scientific purposes, but that people from all across the world can go and log on, and see the state of the northern lights. That’s pretty phenomenal.”
From a scientific perspective, the images will help with a better understanding of the ionosphere.
Last week, Air Canada and Delta Air Lines both had to reroute several flights due to solar radiation from a large sun storm that threatened to knock out radio communications.
“The very same phenomena that are causing the northern lights are causing these sort of concerns,” Greffen said.
“They are a great indicator of things that are happening in the larger geomagnetic environment.”