Timeline for Why does the Earth's atmosphere as seen from space have the colors that it does?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 22, 2019 at 19:43 | vote | accept | Willk | ||
| May 14, 2019 at 23:39 | comment | added | AtmosphericPrisonEscape | @Willk: There are three details to this: 1.)The phenomenon is related to the thickness of the Chapman layer of the ions, which is given by the penetration depth of UV radiation ionizing them. This is an exp-exp function, so relatively steep, giving airglow a layer-like nature. 2.) Ions drift and diffuse east-west due to various plasma phenomena, but I don't think this is what one sees. 3.) Limb viewing geometry. So 1.) and 3.) together give the layering that one sees. | |
| May 14, 2019 at 21:31 | comment | added | Willk | Nice! And there is comet Lovejoy in the Wikipedia article too. But why would airglow look sharply layered? I would think the phenomenon would be pretty diffuse. | |
| May 14, 2019 at 21:23 | history | answered | AtmosphericPrisonEscape | CC BY-SA 4.0 |