NASA's ICON Mission Ends In Airglow Glory

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ICON's mission was critical to modern-day society that depends on the ionosphere to host a large population of manmade satellites that orbit the Earth, retaining them just within Earth's gravitational pull and protecting them from space weather. Radio wave communications rely on the ionosphere to ricochet and volley transmissions around the Earth in a relay of signals. Space weather, as well as Earth's weather, can cause a disruption in communications, GPS, and satellite function when the paths of the radio waves are altered by the unpredictable electric currents surging through the ionosphere. ICON provided unprecedented documentation of these changes in the density and composition being initiated by both Earth weather and the space weather sent across the solar system by the sun. The results of the mission have laid the groundwork for a bright future of scientific discovery and revelation as researchers sift through the data collected during ICON's prolific mission.

The ICON satellite carried four state-of-the-art imaging and sampling instruments and orbited the equator while actively sampling and making measurements of the gases, charged particles, and wind speeds that comprised the atmosphere in which it flew. It snapped images of the ethereal auroras, rivers of charged particles, ionosphere dynamos, and snaking channels of airglow.

Scientists continue to unwrap the breakthrough discoveries NASA's ICON provided during its primary and extended missions, including revelatory observations on the wind-fueled ionospheric dynamo, Earth's natural magnetosphere-ionosphere electrical generator, airglow patterns, and the strong wind patterns that are affected by both space and earth weather. Practically, these revelations will enhance scientists' ability to predict disruptions in communications, GPS, and satellite function.

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