"Space Satellite Observes Carbon Dioxide Aurora"
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phys.org
Scientists have used satellite measurements to observe aurora associated with carbon dioxide in Earth's thermosphere. Carbon dioxide becomes vibrationally excited during an aurora, emitting more infrared radiation than typically observed in the atmosphere. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, which gathers infrared energy emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere globally, was used to observe elevated infrared signals from carbon dioxide during an aurora. This dataset and analysis method provides the first daily global observations over regions of the northern and southern hemispheres using a nadir-viewing satellite instrument.