AIM Stories
Night-Shining Cloud Mission Ends; Yields High Science Results for NASA
Update, Aug. 19: The AIM spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at 10:38 a.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 19. The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the re-entry occurred near the Egypt/Sudan border. NASA has received no immediate reports of surviving fragments. Editor’s…
Rocket Launches Can Create Night-Shining Clouds Away from the Poles, NASA’s AIM Mission Reveals
Near Earth’s North and South poles, wispy, iridescent clouds often shimmer high in the summertime sky around dusk and dawn. These night-shining, or noctilucent, clouds are sometimes spotted farther from the poles as well, at a rate that varies dramatically…
Tiny Meteors Leave Smoke in the Atmosphere. NASA’s Studying It.
It’s time for the Geminids, the annual December meteor shower! Every year, Earth passes through the debris trail from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The pea-sized rocks it leaves behind burn up in our atmosphere, producing glowing trails in the night…
NASA’s AIM Sees First Night-Shining Clouds of Antarctic Summer
Summer in Antarctica is marked by days in which the Sun never sets, balmy temperatures that hover as high as freezing, and electric-blue clouds of ice. NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere mission — AIM for short — spotted…
NASA’s AIM Spots First Arctic Noctilucent Clouds of the Season
Ice-blue clouds are drifting high above the Arctic, which means the Northern Hemisphere’s noctilucent cloud season is here. NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere spacecraft — AIM for short — first spotted wisps of these noctilucent, or night-shining,…
NASA Balloon Mission Captures Electric Blue Clouds
On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration…
Taking AIM at Night-Shining Clouds: 10 Years, 10 Science Highlights
Launched on April 25, 2007, NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, mission, has provided a wealth of new science on the dynamics and composition of Earth’s upper atmosphere. Designed to study noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds, AIM’s data…
NASA’s AIM Observes Early Noctilucent Ice Clouds Over Antarctica
Data from NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, spacecraft shows the sky over Antarctica is glowing electric blue due to the start of noctilucent, or night-shining, cloud season in the Southern Hemisphere – and an early one…
Appearance of Night-Shining Clouds Has Increased
First spotted in 1885, silvery blue clouds sometimes hover in the night sky near the poles, appearing to give off their own glowing light. Known as noctilucent clouds, this phenomenon began to be sighted at lower and lower latitudes —…
Meteor Smoke Makes Strange Clouds
Anyone who’s ever seen a noctilucent cloud or “NLC” would agree: They look alien. The electric-blue ripples and pale tendrils of NLCs reaching across the night sky resemble something from another world. Researchers say that’s not far off. A key…