The earth’s ionosphere glows at a variety of wavelengths from the infrared through the ultraviolet. Ground-based and space-based observations of these emissions can be used to infer integrated ionospheric electron density and electron density profiles. From geosynchronous orbit ultraviolet observations can be used to image integrated electron density and by choosing pairs of emission features, 3 dimensional imaging is possible. Ionospheric scintillation regions contain small scale irregularities which cause fading and signal loss for a variety of space to ground RF transmissions including UHF SATCOM and GPS navigation. Ultraviolet remote sensing from geosynchronous orbit has the potential to provide detailed characterizations of these irregularity regions and provide advanced warning of communication and navigation outages.

Atmospheric gravity waves produced by earthquakes and tsunamis can propagate upward into the ionosphere producing density fluctuations which should be observable from geosynchronous orbit in the ultraviolet.