Word: ultraviolet
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...earth's storms are connected in some way with changes in the sun's radiation. They develop just after the sun's surface shows "calcium flocculi": a nubbly appearance that signals an unusually large output of ultraviolet light. Shortly after the sun gets nubbly, the high white clouds show...
Scientists have long known that the sun sends out powerful ultraviolet waves that never reach the earth's surface. One sign: the layers of ionized air high in the atmosphere which are formed by electrical disturbances kicked up by the sun's ultraviolet. But no one has been able to photograph these inaccessible waves...
...held the camera steady on it for long enough to get a 28-second exposure. The film, recovered undamaged from the rocket's wreckage, showed a sharp spectrogram of the sunlight taken at 50 miles altitude, above nearly all of the atmosphere. The bulk of the ultraviolet was at just the place on the sun's spectrum where the scientists thought it would be: at 1,216 angstroms...
Exact knowledge of the ultraviolet will be of great use to meteorologists. Ultraviolet energy heats the top of the atmosphere, causing air movements that affect the weather all over the world. The information will also be useful in the study of the ionized air layers, which reflect many kinds of radio signals...
...newly photographed ultraviolet waves will be a major hazard for future space pilots in flights above the atmosphere. Human tissue, developed beneath the sheltering air blanket, will probably be injured by ultraviolet unless well protected. "I'd hate to be up there for an hour," said Dr. Howard Edwards, who worked on the project. "In fact, I'd hate to be up there...