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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Rockets into Auroras

  Why is this the first time I recall ever hearing of this?

Yesterday in Skiland, Alaska, scientists at the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range launched a rocket into the auroras:

"The launch occurred about 3:45am local time, and the picture shows the first of the four stages," says photographer Lance Parish.

Photo of launch:

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/imag … rrish1.jpg

Rockets like this one are launched several times each year from the Poker Flat facility. They carry instruments able to sense charged particles and electric fields into the high atmosphere where auroras are formed. Why? Because after centuries of observation and study, auroras are still not fully understood. Researchers need more data! Later this week, NASA plans to launch a fleet of five satellites to unravel the mystery of auroral substorms. Stay tuned for images and updates.

Article about auroral substorms:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/ja … HEMIS.html

All that courtesy spaceweather.com

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)