The Spacelab 3 space shuttle mission of April 29 to May 6, 1985, provided an excellent opportunity to survey the Aurora Australis from near-Earth orbit. The orbital inclination and Beta angle were such that the orbit penetrated the average auroral oval in darkness. 274 color photographs of the aurora and approximately 5 hr of black and white video recordings were obtained. The data cover 22 separate passes from seven days. On several occasions the Orbiter passed above the auroral forms. By using the orbital motion to provide the parallax, both the color photographs and the video recordings were viewed stereoscopically. The data provide the first views from outside the atmosphere of thin horizontal layers of enhanced aurora. The layers, once thought to be rare, were recorded on two out of three passes. This first observation of enhanced aurora from space eliminates concerns that the ground-based observations might have been an optical illusion caused by atmospheric refraction. Also, for the first time, vertically thin layers were observed in diffuse aurora. This is a measurement that is possible only from space ideally in near-Earth orbit.
