NASA AIMS for Clouds on the Edge of Space

William Atkins
Thursday, 26 April 2007 08:11

Science - Space

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To view the launch go to the WAVY.com website titled "Hampton University teams with NASA for satellite mission".

NLCs are bright, cloud-like phenomena found in the atmosphere, which are only visible during twilight. As the highest clouds above the Earth—at altitudes of about 85 kilometers (50 miles), they are the least known of all the cloud types. Noctilucent clouds—which comes from the Latin for night shining—are commonly observable during the summer months at latitudes between 50 and 60 degrees from both sides of the Earth’s equator.

They are literally Clouds on the Edge of Space.

For additional information about the AIM mission and noctilucent clouds, go to the ITwire article “Clouds on the Edge of Space to be studied by NASA’s AIM satellite”.

The launch of AIM was flawless—it had no technical or weather issues according to NASA officials. NASA launch director Omar Baez reported in Space.com about the launch, saying: “It was nominal, the spacecraft is power positive, the solar arrays are deployed and we’re in the right place. You can’t call it any better than that.”

The AIM mission is part of NASA's Heliospherical Observatory. This series of 16 different spacecraft are studying the Sun from different perspectives.

AIM, itself, is solely dedicated to these mysterious clouds that are located above the north and south polar regions of the Earth. They perplex scientists because they have grown brighter and more numerous over recent years.

Some scientists are surmising that global climate changes are affecting these clouds. But, nobody knows for sure.

The Home website for Hampton University is: http://www.hamptonu.edu/.