Atmospheric Emission Layers according to Photographic Observations from the International Space Station

Resumo

Photographic and video observations made by astronaut Thomas Pesquet (European Space Agency) during the 51st expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) contain a series of color images of the emission and scattering layers of the Earth’s atmosphere under night and twilight conditions. The stars of various constellations can be clearly seen in the atmosphere images above the limb of the Earth. This makes it possible to accurately determine the geometric parameters of the emission layers and the conditions of their illumination by the Sun. A model is proposed to explain the blue glow of the thin atmospheric layer near the horizon resulting from the Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the lower layers of the atmosphere.