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These pictures are false color images of the transparent, electrified gas (plasma) trapped inside Earth's magnetic field. By tracking the motion of this plasma, scientists are getting the first large-scale, global views of the Earth's magnetic field and magnetic storms. The pictures were taken by NASA's Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft on August 11, 2000 at around 18:00 UT. In both photos, the IMAGE spacecraft is looking down at the Earth from above the north pole, and the globe or sphere in the center represents the position and size of the Earth. The Sun is outside the picture area towards the top right corner (note the shadow cast by the Earth in its own plasma cloud at the bottom left of the blue image).
The blue image (top) is the ultraviolet glow from relatively cold plasma as seen by the Extreme Ultraviolet imager (EUV) instrument on board IMAGE. A hook-shaped "tail" of plasma streaming toward the Sun can be seen at the top left of the picture. Note also the small, faint circle near the center of the image - this is the ultraviolet glow from the aurora, also known as the northern lights.
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The red image (bottom) is the neutral atom glow from hot plasma as seen by the High Energy Neutral Atom imager (HENA) instrument on board IMAGE. The false color represents density of the hot plasma; orange-white is most dense, red is least. Note that in this case, the hot plasma is densest on Earth's day side, which is unexpected since it comes from the Earth's night side during a magnetic storm.
Text and image courtesy of NASA and the IMAGE science team
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