Exploring the earth’s atmosphere by photography from Skylab

Abstract

Availability of a 35-mm camera equipped with interference filters, together with an 8-inch-square uv-transmitting window for the Skylab scientific airlocks, revived long-standing interests at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in the study of the earth’s upper atmosphere. The present paper details the design of several simple experiments to photograph the twilight and night airglow and the daytime ozone from an average 435-km altitude. Other phenomena of the atmosphere, including the polar aurora and noctilucent clouds, were sought, some with success. The versatile system also obtained some photographs of Comet Kohoutek. The experiment, by design, was dependent on man in space to select suitable targets and to optimize the data return from available equipment.