A Puzzling Collapse Of Earth's Upper Atmosphere

Layers of Earth's upper atmosphere. Credit: John Emmert/NRL. For a larger version of this image please go here.
by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 16, 2010
NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding again.

"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," says John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19th issue of the Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). "It's a Space Age record."