Airglow/Nightglow and the Terminator

by Vanderleun on February 18, 2019

All of 4K video and Time-lapse sequences were taken by the astronauts onboard the ISS (NASA/ESA). All footage has been edited, color graded, denoised, deflickered, stabilized by myself. Some of the 4K video clips were shot at 24frames/sec reflecting the actual speed of the space station over the earth. Shots taken at wider angels were speed up a bit to match the flow of the video.

Some interesting facts about the ISS: The ISS maintains an orbit above the earth with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km (205 and 270 miles). The ISS completes 15.54 orbits per day around the earth and travels at a speed of 27,600 km/h; 17,100 mph).

The yellow line that you see over the earth is Airglow/Nightglow. Airglow/Nightglow is a layer of nighttime light emissions caused by chemical reactions high in Earth’s atmosphere. A variety of reactions involving oxygen, sodium, ozone, and nitrogen result in the production of a very faint amount of light (Keck A and Miller S et al. 2013).

— Bruce Berry

The Terminator At the Equator, under flat conditions (without obstructions like mountains or at a height above any such obstructions), the terminator moves at approximately 1,668 kilometers per hour (1,036 miles per hour). This speed can appear to increase when near obstructions, such as the height of a mountain, as the shadow of the obstruction will be cast over the ground in advance of the terminator along a flat landscape. The speed of the terminator decreases as it approaches the poles, where it can reach a speed of zero (full-day sunlight or darkness).

Supersonic aircraft like jet fighters or Concorde and Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transports are the only aircraft able to overtake the maximum speed of the terminator at the equator. However, slower vehicles can overtake the terminator at higher latitudes, and it is possible to walk faster than the terminator at the poles, near to the equinoxes. The visual effect is that of seeing the sun rise in the west, or set in the east.

Earth View of current Terminator

Comments on this entry are closed.

Patvann February 18, 2019, 12:15 PM

Link to the video isn’t hap-nin, boss….

∞
Vanderleun February 18, 2019, 1:29 PM

All links seem solid from my node.

∞
Marica February 18, 2019, 2:18 PM

I switched to the browser, Brave, a while back and note that for some sites, videos don’t play. Probably my shields are up too high (that’s Brave speak). Patvann– do you think it could be something like that?

∞
Patvann February 18, 2019, 3:38 PM

Been followin my Boss and every/and all his links for 15 plus years. Never a link-prob.
I shall try again….(Boss said so…)
Got it! I shall now blame (with no evidence at all) the spawn of my loin, the 24 year old genius boy who maintains all our household web-access. (He who has shown me my error via text.)
-Because I can, and cuz I pay all the mortgage, and bills, and I’m old…and mostly cuz he ain’t here right now to yell at me.
-He shall now get some of the spaghetti I’m cookin…
Da big galoot. 🙂
I will love him, and squeeze him, and name him George.
Or Daniel…

∞
Flyover February 18, 2019, 6:48 PM

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

∞
arcs February 20, 2019, 7:28 AM

Does anyone else find that certain passages of music will make your hair follicles stand up and, sometimes, dilate your tear ducts? Beautiful visual scenes can do it, too.

∞

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Airglow/Nightglow and the Terminator

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