[NASA Feature by Lina Tran on Nov 29 2021]

What happens on Earth doesn’t stay on Earth.

Using observations from NASA’s ICON mission, scientists presented the first direct measurements of Earth’s long-theorized dynamo on the edge of space: a wind-driven electrical generator that spans the globe 60-plus miles above our heads. The dynamo churns in the ionosphere, the electrically charged boundary between Earth and space. It’s powered by tidal winds in the upper atmosphere that are faster than most hurricanes and rise from the lower atmosphere, creating an electrical environment that can affect satellites and technology on Earth.

The new work, published [Nov 29 2021] in Nature Geoscience, improves our understanding of the ionosphere, which helps scientists better predict space weather and protect our technology from its effects.

The EUV Level 1 (L1) product containing EUV limb radiances has been updated to V3. This resolves primarily remaining issues with flatfielding. The Level 2 (L2) products are now re-run using these L1 inputs. The retrieval algorithm hasn't changed but the revision number has been indexed on the L2 products. This now extends the L2 products into 2021.

New IVM Level 2 data (Version 5 of Product 2.7) are now available. This update improves the running correction for observed bias, using a measurement window that extends days into the future to inform the correction. As such, the data are released several weeks behind other products (2.2 and 2.4 for example) We recommend that users migrate to these products (available on the ICON FTP site) and review the documentation available here.

An update to the ICON MIGHTI 2.3 product for MLT temperatures is coming shortly to the public FTP site. It includes a number of changes related to the flat field of the instrument when making O2 A-band measurements at 5 different wavelengths. This extends the range of altitudes and solar zenith angles of available temperatures from both MIGHTI A and B, and reduces the differences in results from the two channels. Please see the Documentation online for details of this product update.

UPDATE: v5 of the temperature product is now on the public site.

by Miles Hatfield, NASA —The Dynamo-2 sounding rocket mission will launch two rockets coordinated with the passing of the ICON satellite overhead to study a churning electric current in the upper atmosphere. The mission is just the latest in a centuries-long quest to understand the atmospheric dynamo, beginning with Michael Faraday’s invention of the electric generator.

Some 50 miles up, where Earth’s atmosphere blends into space, the air itself hums with an electric current. Scientists call it the atmospheric dynamo, an Earth-sized electric generator. It’s taken hundreds of years for scientists to lay the groundwork to understand it, but the principles that keep it running are only just now being revealed in detail. 

Following up on its predecessor’s 2013 flight, the Dynamos, Winds, and Electric Fields in the Daytime Lower Ionosphere-2, or Dynamo-2, sounding rocket mission will soon pierce the atmospheric winds thought to keep the dynamo churning. With the sounding rocket’s launch timed as NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) satellite passes nearby, these two space missions will combine their perspectives to advance our understanding of the giant electric circuit in the sky.