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| ORBIT
TOOLS
Current AIM Location
Use the AIM Orbit Generator for details and orbit prediction
Find
overpass times for your groundstation |
| LAUNCH
DETAILS
days
since AIM launched.
Launch Date: 25 April 2007
Location: Vandenberg AFB, California, USA
Launch Vehicle: Pegasus
Orbit: Sun-synchronus
Inclination: 97.8 degrees
Period: 96 min, 32 sec
After initial spacecraft stabilization, the
spacecraft and instruments underwent extensive commissioning
activities to ensure proper operation. |
| FEATURED
DATA
CIPS observed its first cloud of the NH 2011 season on 24 May, just north of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. Similar to other seasons, this was four days after the SOFIE first detection because of the lower sensitivity of CIPS. Clouds have increased in number and intensity each day since then. The image here is a preliminary "daily daisy" from 30 May, showing widespread clouds over the polar region. more>
Featured Data
Archive
Spaceweather.com image submitted by Marek Nikodem,
near Szubin, Poland
Jun. 26, 2011
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| AIM
DATA SETS
Download Documentation:
Software Tools:
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| MISSION
STATUS
04.26.12
Happy Birthday, AIM! Five years old and still going strong! The spacecraft continues to perform nominally. We have several uploads awaiting bitlock and we have scheduled more TDRS relay satellite contacts. All other systems are healthy.
more > |
INSTRUMENTS
Final Mass, Power, & Data Rates for SOFIE, CIPS, CDE, BUS, and their totals. |
Spaceweather's NLC Gallery
Summer 2011 Photo Gallery
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Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6o to 16o below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you've probably spotted a noctilucent cloud. Although noctilucent clouds appear most often at arctic latitudes, they have been sighted in recent years as far south as Colorado, Utah and Virginia. NLCs are seasonal, appearing most often in late spring and summer. In the northern hemisphere, the best time to look would be between mid-May and the end of August. See also 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 |
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THE MISSION
The Aeronomy
of Ice
in the Mesosphere
(AIM) satellite mission is exploring Polar Mesospheric Clouds
(PMCs), also called noctilucent clouds, to find out why they
form and why they are changing.
The AIM mission
has been extended by NASA through the end of FY12. During this time the
instruments will monitor noctilucent clouds to better understand
their variability and possible connection to climate change.
Individual instrument data collection status, as well as spacecraft
and instrument health, will be monitored throughout the life
of the mission and reported periodically on this website.
The primary goal of the AIM mission is to help scientists understand whether the clouds' ephemeral nature, and their variation over time, is related to Earth's changing climate - and to investigate why they form in the first place. By measuring the thermal, chemical and other properties of the environment in which the mysterious clouds form, the AIM mission will provide researchers with a foundation for the study of long-term variations in the mesosphere and its relationship to global climate change. In addition to measuring environmental conditions, the AIM mission will collect data on cloud abundance, how the clouds are distributed, and the size of particles within them. |
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NEWS & PRESS
02.29.12
CU-Boulder
Four CU-Boulder faculty members elected American Geophysical Union Fellows in 2012
"Randall, who also is affiliated with LASP, was cited for her contributions to our understanding of the impact of energetic particles on the atmosphere. Randall is principal investigator for the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment on NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere satellite, or AIM, which is studying long-term changes in ice crystal clouds in the mesosphere and their relationship to global climate change." more>
07.20.2011
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Noctilucent Clouds Over Edmonton
07.06.2011
NASA
Noctilucent Cloud Season Begins
07.01.2011
WHRO
Discovery Now Podcast on NLCs
Press Release Archive |
MORE @ NASA
NASA Websites about AIM:
Articles:
NASA
Images and Animations
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