1
00:00:00,090 --> 00:00:04,170
From a million miles away, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)

2
00:00:04,170 --> 00:00:08,370
is capturing sparkling glints of light in images of Earth.

3
00:00:08,370 --> 00:00:12,560
The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC)

4
00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,580
on board DSCOVR has seen hundreds of these flashes, 

5
00:00:16,580 --> 00:00:20,960
caused by sunlight reflecting off tiny ice particles floating in the air almost horizontally.

6
00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:25,140
DSCOVR is not the first satellite to see the sun glints. 

7
00:00:25,140 --> 00:00:29,250
In 1990, the Galileo spacecraft

8
00:00:29,250 --> 00:00:33,480
captured some of these flashes in Earth’s atmosphere while en route to Jupiter.

9
00:00:33,480 --> 00:00:37,680
Studying the glints from DSCOVR can offer insight

10
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,800
about how light reflects off Earth’s atmosphere,

11
00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:46,010
and how that could affect the planet’s radiation budget.

12
00:00:46,010 --> 00:00:50,070
In the future, a similar method could potentially be used to identify ice crystals

13
00:00:50,070 --> 00:00:58,717
in the atmosphere of exoplanets, an early step to evaluating their habitability.