First-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras: New camera provides tantalizing clues of new atmospheric phenomenon
Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 12:01
in Astronomy & Space
Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras -- commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"-- and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.