Initial observations by the GOLD mission

The NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has flown an ultraviolet-imaging spectrograph on SES-14, a communications satellite in geostationary orbit at 47.5 degrees W longitude. That instrument observes the Earth's far ultraviolet (FUV) airglow at similar to 134-162 nm using two identical channels. The observations performed include limb scans, stellar occultations, and images of the sunlit and nightside disk from 6:10 to 00:40 universal time each day. Initial analyses reveal interesting and unexpected results as well as the potential for further studies of the Earth's thermosphere-ionosphere system and its responses to solar-geomagnetic forcing and atmospheric dynamics. Thermospheric composition ratios for major constituents, O and N-2, temperatures near 160 km, and exospheric temperatures are retrieved from the daytime observations. Molecular oxygen (O-2) densities are measured using stellar occultations. At night, emission from radiative recombination in the ionosphericFregion is used to quantify ionospheric density variations in the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Regions of depletedFregion electron density are frequently evident, even during the current solar minimum. These depletions are caused by the "plasma fountain effect" and are associated with the instabilities, scintillations, or "spreadF" seen in other types of observations, and GOLD makes unique observations for their study.

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Author Eastes, R. W.
McClintock, W. E.
Burns, Alan
Anderson, D. N.
Andersson, L.
Aryal, S.
Budzien, S. A.
Cai, Xuguang
Codrescu, M. V.
Correira, J. T.
Daniell, R. E.
Dymond, K. F.
England, S. L.
Eparvier, F. G.
Evans, J. S.
Foroosh, H.
Gan, Q.
Greer, K. R.
Karan, D. K.
Krywonos, A.
Laskar, F. I.
Lumpe, J. D.
Martinis, C. R.
McPhate, J. B.
Oberheide, J.
Siegmund, O. H.
Solomon, Stanley C.
Veibel, V.
Woods, T. N.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2020-07-26T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:17:23.024293
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:23571
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Eastes, R. W., McClintock, W. E., Burns, Alan, Anderson, D. N., Andersson, L., Aryal, S., Budzien, S. A., Cai, Xuguang, Codrescu, M. V., Correira, J. T., Daniell, R. E., Dymond, K. F., England, S. L., Eparvier, F. G., Evans, J. S., Foroosh, H., Gan, Q., Greer, K. R., Karan, D. K., Krywonos, A., Laskar, F. I., Lumpe, J. D., Martinis, C. R., McPhate, J. B., Oberheide, J., Siegmund, O. H., Solomon, Stanley C., Veibel, V., Woods, T. N.. (2020). Initial observations by the GOLD mission. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7rn3c40. Accessed 20 August 2025.

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