Atomic Oxygen Hidden in Earth’s Atmosphere Could Hold Clues to Our Climate Crisis

The airborne observatory SOFIA has already discovered the first molecule in the universe, but what else remains to be uncovered? It’s now starting to reveal insights that could change our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere as we know it.

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A combined mission from NASA and the German Aerospace Center, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, conducts its research more than 12,000 meters high in the stratosphere.

For years, this airborne observatory has been helping us better understand our universe, but it seems as though a well planned upgrade to one of its on-board instruments has just given us some important insight about our own home planet. Originally designed to detect infrared light in celestial bodies across the universe, SOFIA hosts eight instruments on board.

Each instrument is intended to study a particular phenomena over a wide range of wavelengths. This provides astronomers a unique opportunity to use this suite of instruments at an altitude above literally 99 percent of the Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere.

SOFIA removes the limitations of ground based telescopes that might result in blurry images or even incomplete datasets as infrared light would filter through the Earth's atmosphere. And SOFIA has already discovered some pretty cool things. Like the first molecule in the universe, helium hydride, and even neighboring star systems.

#astrophysics #space #science #seeker #elements

Read More:

NASA's super 747 SOFIA: The world's biggest flying observatory
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-biggest-flying-observatory-747-nasa-sofia/index.html
"NASA's SOFIA, a 747SP-21 was originally built to carry passengers on ultra-long haul routes. Now it's used to carry the world's only flying infrared astronomy laboratory and flying infrared telescope."

SOFIA Offers New Way to Study Earth’s Atmosphere
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/sofia-offers-new-way-to-study-earth-s-atmosphere
"Heinz Hübers led a team to improve one of SOFIA’s infrared instruments – the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies, or GREAT – with a new laser technology. He realized that the upgrade would not only help to study the distant cosmos, it could also be used much closer to home."

An air­borne strato­spher­ic ob­ser­va­to­ry mea­sures the con­cen­tra­tion of atom­ic oxy­gen di­rect­ly for the first time
https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2021/01/20210126_in-the-middle-of-earth-s-atmosphere.html
"GREAT is the first instrument to directly measure the concentration of atomic oxygen in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere."
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