Atmosphere Dragging You Down?

The upper atmosphere of the Earth responds very quickly to the Sun. Here is a brand-new app that lets you know what the temperature and density of the upper atmosphere is. It is the MSIS model on your phone!

You can look up values or draw plots of the density and temperature. Here is an example of the temperature.

It may be a pretty good vacuum up there, but it brings down satellites and produces the ionosphere that interferes with radio waves. Available free from the iTunes store. An explanation is available at the MSISatmos webpage.

Enjoy!

UARS Re-entered, Belated Birthdays on Neptune

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. ET Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. ET Sept. 24. The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California said the satellite fell out of orbit over the Pacific Ocean. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty. NASA will hold a press teleconference today at 2 pm ET to discuss the re-entry of UARS. Here is the link http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html

Neptune was discovered one Neptune year ago. On September 23, 1846 Neptune was seen near its predicted location, with the discovery credited to Johann Galle, John Couch Adams, and Urbain Le Verrier. On Jul 7, 2011 Neptune completed its first orbit around the Sun since that day. Neptune is far from the Sun and very cold. I wonder if you would worry about Space Weather if you lived on (or floated in the clouds of) Neptune?