Aeronomy is the research area focused on the physical and chemical processes governing the upper atmospheres of planets, including Earth, typically from the mesosphere upward through the thermosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere. It examines energy inputs from solar radiation, charged particles, and magnetospheric coupling, and their roles in driving ionization, excitation, heating, and atmospheric escape. Aeronomy integrates fluid dynamics, plasma physics, radiative transfer, and atmospheric chemistry to model composition, temperature, density, and ionization structure. The field underpins understanding of space weather impacts, ionospheric variability, atmospheric coupling across altitudes, and comparative aeronomy of other planetary bodies and exoplanets.
Between 50 and 1,000 kilometers above our heads is the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's upper atmosphere consisting of charged particles: ions (atoms that have gained or lost a negatively charged electron) and loose electrons. ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 17, 2025
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An international team of astrophysicists and planetary scientists has discovered a possible link between magnetospheric activity and ionospheric turbulence. In their study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, ...
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth's far upper atmosphere.
Space Exploration
Mar 22, 2025
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Following the 3,000th orbit of NASA's AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) aboard the International Space Station, researchers publicly released the mission's first trove of scientific data, crucial to investigating how and ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 14, 2025
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Southwest Research Institute partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science to perform laboratory experiments to better understand how Saturn's moon Titan can maintain its unique nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan is the ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 27, 2025
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A team led by researchers at the University of Tokyo has created a dataset of the whole atmosphere, enabling new research to be conducted on previously difficult-to-study regions. The work has been published in Progress in ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 10, 2025
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91
Universe Today reported before about a NIAC-funded project known as the Lofted Environment and Atmospheric Venues Sensors (LEAVES) mission to study Venus' atmosphere. While the technology behind the idea is still under development, ...
Space Exploration
Jan 9, 2025
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Aggregated measurements from millions of smartphones could be used to create a comprehensive map of the Earth's ionosphere, leading to better global positioning systems, according to a new paper published in Nature.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 14, 2024
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