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NASA
The lights of the Florida Peninsula and the rest of the southeastern U.S. glow in this picture taken from the International Space Station on Nov. 24.
Florida's city lights shine brightly in this night view from the International Space Station — but there's a completely different kind of glow that frames the edge of our planet. It's known as "airglow," the faint greenish radiance high up in Earth's atmosphere.
You might think airglow comes from the reflected glare of city lights, but it's actually a photochemical reaction caused by the sun's ultraviolet radiation.
During the day, that radiation breaks apart molecules of oxygen and other chemicals, exciting them into a higher energy state. During the night, the molecules recombine, radiating the excess energy as light. As a result, the atmosphere glows in a thin region around 60 miles up.
The glow is so faint that it can't be seen when you're looking up into the sky, or when astronauts are looking directly down from space. But when space travelers look toward the edge of Earth's disk at night, they can see the permanent aurora at the horizon. For more about airglow, check out this explanation from the University at Albany's Bob Keesee, or this one from Discovery News' Jason Major.
We've seen some great views of airglow from the space station over the past year: For more examples, check out these archived PhotoBlog items, and keep an eye on NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth as well as astronaut Ron Garan's postings on Google+ for "Fragile Oasis."
The hits just keep on coming from the space station, and you can expect to see much more when the station's crew is back at its full strength of six astronauts.
Three new crew members are due to arrive this week, just in time for Christmas. In this video, space station commander Dan Burbank reflects on the new arrivals, the holidays and our "indescribably beautiful" planet:
Space station commander Dan Burbank sends season's greetings to the world.
The space station crew's sidelong glance at the Florida Keys, the Florida Peninsula and the rest of the southeastern United States was captured from orbit on Nov. 24. It's today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which highlights views of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Catch up on these previous gems from the calendar:
- The full Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
- Dec. 1: An ornament in outer space
- Dec. 2: The masses in Mecca
- Dec. 3: Santa's shrinking domain
- Dec. 4: The monster of Madagascar
- Dec. 5: Antarctica stripped naked
- Dec. 6: Streaking for home
- Dec. 7: Pearl Harbor from above, 1941-2011
- Dec. 8: The rise and fall of the Dead Sea
- Dec. 9: How an eclipse dims Earth
- Dec. 10: Psychedelic storm
- Dec. 11: Beauty of the Inland Sea
- Dec. 12: Drone-spotting stirs up debate
- Dec. 13: Light up your St. Lucy's Day
- Dec. 14: Satellite spots Chinese aircraft carrier
- Dec. 15: Hooray for Hollywood
- Dec. 16: Olympics under construction
- Dec. 17: Mystery in the Gobi Desert
- Hubble calendar, from The Atlantic's In Focus
- 2011 Zooniverse Advent calendar
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
wow,lets try and keep those lights lit.vote Ron Paul.
Let's not. Vote for Ron Paul that is. He has some really bad ideas.
Ron Paul is always one of the 31 flavors (vanilla) but never the flavor of the month.
I'm guessing all those lights in the Gulf are oil platforms - oh boy, no potential for disaster there.
i guess there is some... really bright people in floriduh...
Shame on Bush for allowing this light pollution to occur. Under Obamas control, I am sure these lights will be shut off....
I am going to assume that this was sarcasm.
You got me randomperson. Sarcasm, except for Obama's leadership, or lack thereof, will bring this country to it knees. And yes, many lights will be shut off.
Its been 4 yrs and he hasn't changed a thing, the only lights that Obama's been able to shut off is almost 1/2 of the middle class and all of the poor....Wonder just what change he will bring about in the next 4 yrs, I guess the rest of the middle class will have their lights shut off too and 1/2 of the rich..The smart ones will have left the country...
Cynthia....It's been only 2yrs, 11 months since Obama took over the cleanup of the Bush/Cheney Crime Syndicate's mess they left behind! NOT 4yrs. Of course you're too stupid to want to realize that.
So, no matter the subject pages, your pathetic brain matter is gonna target all it's BS towards Obama, right? Pathetic...! Whine on.
Can you see the lights to Pills Limbaugh's Florida house?
Back to the light pollution reference... The airglow you see here is not caused by light pollution, but by the sun's radiation (which causes effects hours later). Even in Stone Age times, this glow would have been visible to the folks coming down to Earth to deposit the "2001" monument in the middle of the night. ;-)
We could elect Jesus and he couldn't save this planet. Capitalism world wide just accelerated our demise, some times it's best to just mind your own business. Money grabs are a sign the end is here - the rich are desperate/panicked all the scams have been played out...don't even try to hide their shame now...and why should they with so many in their corner?
Lights out like obama's brain.
So incredibly unnecessary, David. Why are you even talking about Obama here? Seriously, go stomp and spin somewhere that it's relevant to the the topic at hand.
What's the "black" part of the southern tip all about? Is this swamp or people saving on their electric bill? Sorry, not all that knowledgeable about Florida.
That dark part is where the Gulf meets the Everglades - so yep, it's swamp. A very big swamp. Nobody can build there, and it would be very difficult to do so even if they could build there. And I sure wouldn't want to live there being home to massive alligators and pythons. That ring of lights at the bottom that hooks out to the west is of course the Keys.
I find this fascinating because you can see bright patches of lights where all the main cities are. About halfway up the state in the middle are the lights of Orlando. Going up to near the top of the visible lights in Georgia are the very bright lights of Atlanta. Moving to the far west down on the coast are the lights of New Orleans.
What a wonderful message of peace to all of us from the space station crew.
Thank you for lighting up our world, Thomas Edison (and to Benjamin Franklin for being the father of the idea behind what we know today as Daylight Savings time).
Plain Bob's comment about "really bright people in Floriduh" cracks me up!! Very clever and very funny!
I can see my mom's house!!
Hi Mom!!
How can you possibly see your mom's house?
The picture was taken from the International Space Station hundreds or maybe even thousands of miles in the air. Why would you say something this stupid? Why WHY WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Wow, rsmith12345. You really believe that ConservativeNotRepublican can actually see their Mom's house in that photo. And you have the nerve to call Conservative stupid? Funny stuff there.
Some apparently take things just a leeedle too seriously....and literally. My mom does live in Florida though.
Just look at that Glow over Miami and the entire state of Florida ! ! ! ! We can now see why our utility bills are constantly going up, and up, and up. Supply and demand for LIGHTS AT NIGHT. Thanks for the waste! ! ! ! ! ! !
Perhaps you would rather it look like this:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=north+korea+at+night&view=detail&id=2AE7DC0E5011A1E3008D4AFBE2618AE0D4DB9D78&first=0&adlt=strict
The strip of lights on the right hand side is Japan, the arrow points to North Korea, and the well lit area below that is, of course, South Korea.
Think I'll stick with the good ol' US of A. Communism doesn't appear too bright to me. Literally.
Beautiful sight.
Thanks! I agree, nice photo. Finally, a comment that just states what is without being political.
Global Warming at it's best.
thats not global warming if its the sun that does the green glow, and besides global warming is just a stupid myth, and i think its more like global cooling because it never gets hot anymore, and im in southern california
You're right on NYB. But don't tell that to the space cadet Gore.
Yeah keep telling yourself that Global Warming is just a stupid idea....
of course it's cooler down where your heads are buried that deep in the sand above ground we have warming.
Now that they dont have to deal with SNOW they can be happy! YAY Florida
It is a great site to see the planet we live upon from above.
Good night and good luck.
Take note how thin the atmosphere is. Now imagine sitting in your garage with the doors closed and the car running. Not that different.
Take a deep breath, because the next one may have less oxygen.
Oxygen ratio will stay essentially the same because plants are constantly replenishing it.
It would really be interesting if they had some of the early satellite photos, from the 60s, to compare this with. I still remember, before the I95 was built, we would drive down to Homestead, on US1 to visit my grandparents. All the little cities, Miami, Opa Locka, Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale and so on, were actually separate. You would actually drive out through the woods between each of them. That was in the 50s though. Now, there are very few breaks all the way to Jacksonville.
Orlando wasn't much in the 60s either. I4 helped but when Disney opened in 1971, Orlando just seemed to explode.
What a huge power bill............laughing here !
Must be some lonely-brained people to keep bringing their snarkey, political BS to every comment vine posted. Always lookin' for someone to blame/whine about.
Disgusting...!
Now...back to the photography...
There's nothing so exiting and beautiful than the views sent back from outer space. Anyone who ever thinks about shutting down NASA should be shot on the spot. If someone's not amazed by these pictures they have to be dead.
Boy , that's allot of Motel 6's..................
Jesus would be our best choice to save the planet. What can man do to save it? It's already ruined and in need of saving.
Hey I can see Russia from here... (oops wrong story)
Seriousely, Beautiful photo.... what I wouldn't give (if I had it) to visit the ISS and see this first hand.
That's an obscene amount of light polluted sky.
The glow isn't from the ground light. It's a light emitting reaction between ozone and nitrogen and it's been going on for billions of years.
The astronauts get to see the stars and FL. doesn't !
I remember reading how Miama refused to implement black outs during WWII because it would hurt business. German U-Boats were able to see the silhouettes of ships against the bright Miami skyline. Made for easy pickings. It wasn't until the beaches were black with oil that Miami finally turned off the lights. I wonder how many ship crews died so that Miami could make some money?
Love the picture!
Your picture is hundred times better, my darling.
She ain't yer darling..get over it.