NASA's AIM Spacecraft Stops Peeking At Earth's Tallest Clouds After 15 Years

Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) (photo: doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - After 15 years of operation, the NASA spacecraft, Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) has ended its mission in charge of monitoring the highest clouds on Earth.

NASA stated that the cause of the mission ending was because AIM had a problem with the battery. Initially, the agency saw AIM's battery start to decline in 2019, but the spacecraft still continues to return large amounts of data to Earth.

Now, with the battery drain getting worse, AIM can no longer take commands or collect data.

The NASA team will continue to monitor AIM communications for two weeks if the spacecraft is able to reboot and transmit signals.

NASA launched the AIM mission in 2007 to study glowing night clouds, or noctilucent, from an orbit 312 miles above Earth. Noctilucent clouds are located in the third layer of Earth's atmosphere, the mesosphere, making them the tallest clouds on Earth.

For noctilucent clouds to form, they need water vapor, dust, and very low temperatures like many clouds. Noctilucent clouds are visible during the summer months when the mesosphere is at its coldest at the poles, as quoted from Space, Monday, March 20.

When the temperature is low enough, water vapor freezes onto dust particles, forming ice crystals. When the sun shines on them from below, these ice crystals reflect sunlight and appear as wisps of electric blue in the night sky, reaching to the very edge of space.

Mesospheric dust can come from outer space as small meteors or come from Earth from volcanic eruptions or pollutant emissions. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this strange cloud was first mentioned in 1885, two years after the eruption of Mount Krakatau.

Meanwhile, the AIM data has transformed scientists' understanding of the causes and formation of clouds. The data, which appeared in 379 peer-reviewed papers, including a recent 2018 study that found methane emissions are due to human-caused climate change, causes glowing clouds to form more frequently at night.

Initially, AIM was scheduled to operate for two years and complete its main mission in 2009, but NASA still saw the plane's condition as good, and the mission was extended to the operational status from then on.

Launching Engadget, AIM's death follows the NASA spacecraft which has also ended its mission.

At the start of the year, the agency deorbited the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite after nearly four decades of collecting measurements of ozone and the atmosphere.