First Global Connection Between Earth And Space Weather Found

This is a false-color image of ultraviolet light from two plasma bands in the ionosphere that encircle the Earth over the equator. Bright, blue-white areas are where the plasma is densest. Solid white lines outline the continents; Africa is on the left, and North and South America are on the right. Dotted white lines mark regions where rising tides of hot air indirectly create the bright, dense zones in the bands. The picture is a composite built up from 30 days of observations with NASA's IMAGE satellite (March 20 to April 20, 2002). Credit: NASA/University of California, Berkeley