GOLD on SES-14 Animation

Artist rendering of SES-14 satellite, the spacecraft that will carry GOLD as NASA's first ever hosted payload.Credit: NASA/CIL/Chris Meaney Canned interview with NASA Scientist Elsayed Talaat looking off camera. Soundbites are separated by slates. Full title: Elsayed Talaat, Heliophysics Chief Scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington Complete transcript available. Canned interview with NASA Scientist Sarah Jones looking off camera. Soundbites are separated by slates.Full title: Sarah Jones, Research Scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterComplete transcript available. Canned interview with Scientist Katelynn Greer looking off camera. Soundbites are separated by slates. Includes transcript of soundbites.Full title: Katelynn Greer, Research Scientist, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado BoulderComplete transcript available. Bright swaths of red and green, known as airglow, are visible in this time-lapse view of Earth's limb captured from the International Space Station. Airglow occurs when gases in the upper atmosphere become charged by the Sun's radiation, emitting light. By measuring the light from airglow, ICON and GOLD will learn a lot about the neutral and charged particles in the upper atmosphere. This infographic compares the GOLD and ICON missions, which together will provide the most ever comprehensive observations of the ionosphere.A PDF is available to download at the bottom of the page. Credit: Mary P. Hrybyk-KeithThis infographic compares the GOLD and ICON missions, which together will provide the most ever comprehensive observations of the ionosphere.A PDF is available to download at the bottom of the page. Credit: Mary P. Hrybyk-Keith Part 1/2: A flyer with information on the GOLD mission’s science goals, instrument and orbit.A PDF is available to download at the bottom of the page. Credit: Mary P. Hrybyk-Keith Part 2/2: A flyer with information on the GOLD mission’s science goals, instrument and orbit.A PDF is available to download at the bottom of the page.Credit: Mary P. Hrybyk-Keith Slug: NASA GOLD Mission to Image Earth’s Interface to SpaceOn Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission launches to explore Earth’s boundary to space. Capturing never-before-seen images of Earth’s upper atmosphere, GOLD will help us understand the region that is home to astronauts, radio signals used to guide airplanes and ships, as well as satellites that provide communications and GPS systems.TRT: 6:31Edited B-roll RT: :52Interview Excerpts RT: 1:02Additional B-Roll RT: 3:05Super(s): NASACenter Contact: Karen Fox, karen.c.fox@nasa.gov, 301-286-6284HQ Contact: Dwayne Brown, dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov, 202-358-1726For more information: www.nasa.gov/GOLD The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission is designed to explore the nearest reaches of space. Capturing never-before-seen images of Earth’s upper atmosphere, GOLD explores in unprecedented detail our space environment — which is home to astronauts, radio signals used to guide airplanes and ships, as well as satellites that provide communications and GPS systems. The more we know about the fundamental physics of this region of space, the more we can protect our assets there.Gathering observations from geostationary orbit above the Western Hemisphere, GOLD measures the temperature and composition of neutral gases in Earth’s thermosphere. This part of the atmosphere co-mingles with the ionosphere, which is made up of charged particles. Both the Sun from above and terrestrial weather from below can change the types, numbers, and characteristics of the particles found here — and GOLD helps track those changes.Activity in this region is responsible for a variety of key space weather events. GOLD scientists are particularly interested in the cause of dense, unpredictable bubbles of charged gas that appear over the equator and tropics, sometimes causing communication problems. As we discover the very nature of the Sun-Earth interaction in this region, the mission could ultimately lead to ways to improve forecasts of such space weather and mitigate its effects. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-gold-mission-to-image-earth-s-interface-to-space](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-gold-mission-to-image-earth-s-interface-to-space) Related pages

Complete transcript available.Music credits: 'Faint Glimmer' by Andrew John Skeet [PRS], Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS], 'Ocean Spirals' by Andrew John Skeet [PRS], Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS] from Killer Tracks.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. A GIF optimized for Twitter.Formed when the Sun’s rays hit atmospheric molecules, this light named “airglow”, comes from green and red bands of glowing gas. Bright swaths of red and green, known as airglow, are visible in this time-lapse view of Earth's limb captured from the International Space Station. Airglow occurs when gases in the upper atmosphere become charged by the Sun's radiation, emitting light. By measuring the light from airglow, ICON and GOLD will learn a lot about the neutral and charged particles in the upper atmosphere. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, instrument launches aboard a commercial communications satellite in January 2018 to inspect the dynamic intermingling of space and Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. Together, GOLD and another NASA mission, Ionospheric Connection Explorer spacecraft, or ICON, will provide the most comprehensive of Earth’s upper atmosphere we’ve ever had.Above the ozone layer, the ionosphere is a part of Earth’s atmosphere where particles have been cooked into a sea of electrically-charged electrons and ions by the Sun’s radiation. The ionosphere is co-mingled with the very highest — and quite thin — layers of Earth’s neutral upper atmosphere, making this region an area that is constantly in flux undergoing the push-and-pull between Earth’s conditions and those in space. Increasingly, these layers of near-Earth space are part of the human domain, as it’s home not only to astronauts, but to radio signals used to guide airplanes and ships, and satellites that provide our communications and GPS systems. Understanding the fundamental processes that govern our upper atmosphere and ionosphere is crucial to improve situational awareness that helps protect astronauts, spacecraft and humans on the ground.GOLD, in geostationary orbit over the Western Hemisphere, will build up a full-disk view of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere every half hour, providing detailed large-scale measurements of related processes — a cadence which makes it the first mission to be able to monitor the true weather of the upper atmosphere. GOLD is also able to focus in on a tighter region and scan more quickly, to complement additional research plans as needed. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-gold-mission-to-image-earth-s-interface-to-space](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-gold-mission-to-image-earth-s-interface-to-space) Related pages