NASA to launch GOLD mission to study Earth s boundary with space

Washington Jan 25 (IANS) NASA is set to launch on Thursday Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk or GOLD mission to to study the dynamic region where space and Earth s uppermost atmosphere meet.

It is the first NASA science mission to fly an instrument as a commercially hosted payload the US space agency said on Wednesday.

The mission will fly aboard SES-14 a commercial communications satellite.

Space is not completely empty. It is teeming with fast-moving charged particles and electric and magnetic fields that guide their motion.

At the boundary between Earth s atmosphere and space the charged particles -- called the ionosphere -- co-exist with the upper reaches of the neutral atmosphere called the thermosphere.

The two commingle and influence one another constantly.

This interplay -- and the role terrestrial weather space weather and Earth s own magnetic field each have in it -- is the focus of GOLD s mission.

"The upper atmosphere is far more variable than previously imagined but we don t understand the interactions between all the factors involved " said Richard Eastes GOLD principal investigator at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

"That s where GOLD comes in: For the first time the mission gives us the big picture of how different drivers meet and influence each other " Eastes added.

Arianespace a commercial aerospace company will be launching GOLD s host commercial communications satellite SES-14 for SES from Kourou French Guiana.

The launch coverage by NASA television will start at 5 pm EST (3.30 am Friday India time).

--IANS
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