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EARTH’S

OUTER

ATMOSPHERE

EARTH ’ S SPHERES

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BOOKS • MINNEAPOLIS

Text copyright © 2007 by Gregory L. Vogt

All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without

the prior written permission of Lerner Publications Company, except for the

inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Twenty-First Century Books

A division of Lerner Publishing Group

241 First Avenue North

Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vogt, Gregory.

Earth’s outer atmosphere : bordering space / by Gregory L. Vogt.

p. cm. — (Earth’s spheres)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978–0–7613–2842–1 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0–7613–2842–4 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

1. Atmosphere, Upper—Popular works. 2. Atmosphere—Popular works.

I. Title.

QC879.V64 2007

551.51'4—dc22 2006019426

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 – DP – 12 11 10 09 08 07

eISBN-13: 978-0-8225-8780-4

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

SWIRLING LIGHTS

CHAPTER 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

THE EDGE OF SPACE

CHAPTER 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

THE SUN HAS

ITS MOMENTS

CHAPTER 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

DEEP DOWN BELOW

CHAPTER 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

SHIELDS UP!

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

POKER FLAT, ALASKA

GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

6

The air in the

crowded flight deck was

filled with the high-pitched

whine of cooling fans. Air drafts

bounced from wall to ceiling and circu￾lated among thousands of switches and controls.

Green letters and numbers flickered on the monitors

spanning the panels toward the nose of the space

shuttle Discovery.

The commander and pilot of the STS-39 mission were

busy monitoring systems and reviewing orbital maneu￾vers they would have to perform when they returned to

Earth. Oceans, islands, mountains, forests, and deserts

were all flashing by at a speed of 5 miles (8 kilome￾ters) per second. Earth’s Southern Hemisphere was

160 miles (260 km) beneath them.

SWIRLING

LIGHTS

INTRODUCTION

Toward the back of the flight deck, an astronaut was

staring out the two windows facing the payload bay.

Through these windows, the crew can operate payloads

mounted in the bay and manipulate the 50-foot-long (15 me￾ters) robot arm. But it was not the arm that had captured

the attention of the astronaut. Discovery had passed into

the dark nightside of Earth, but the sky was still aglow.

Above most of Earth’s atmosphere and stretched out in

front of and below Discovery’s orbit were swirls and rays of

intense greenish light hanging against the nearly pitch￾black background. These

ghostly displays are called auro￾ras, or northern and southern

lights, depending upon which

7

The crew of the Space Shuttle

STS-39 mission took this picture of

the aurora australis, or southern

lights, while orbiting above Earth’s

Southern Hemisphere.