Earth limb views with greenish bands of airglow during STS-99

STS099-356-026 (11-22 February 2000) ---Because of its time exposure, this STS-99 35mm frame provides a view of several stars. The thin greenish band above the horizon is airglow; radiation emitted by the atmosphere from a layer about 30 kilometers thick and about 100 kilometers altitude. The predominant emission in airglow is the green 5577-Angstrom wavelength emission from atomic oxygen atoms. Airglow is always and everywhere present in the atmosphere; it results from the recombination of molecules that have been broken apart by solar radiation during the day. But airglow is so faint that it can only be seen at night by looking "edge on" at the emission layer, such as the view astronauts have in orbit.