The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently launched two rockets flying into the aurora borealis over Alaska, creating a stunning display of bright lights that danced alongside the beautiful northern lights, resembling a spectacular celestial light show.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks announced in a press release that NASA’s two sounding rockets took off from the university’s Geophysical Institute’s launch site on March 25. These rockets carried equipment to study the auroras over Alaska and their impact on the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The research aims to improve space weather forecasting, as auroras are caused by interactions between charged particles from solar winds, the Earth’s magnetic field, and the atmosphere. This research is crucial as the world increasingly relies on global positioning systems (GPS) and other satellite equipment in daily life.
The experiment, named “Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events” (AWESOME), was led by Mark Conde, a professor of space physics at the university’s Geophysical Institute. Alongside researchers from the university, NASA and top American universities also participated in the project.
Conde expressed his excitement, stating, “I am thrilled that we were able to have the launch and experiment conditions. I am very excited.”
As the rockets flew into the auroras, they released a gas known as vapor tracers, creating a visible colorful light show across the skies of northern Alaska.
NASA mentioned that the motion of these vapor tracers can be recorded and studied from the ground, used to measure winds and charged particle flows in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
This launch mission is actually a two-in-one mission, making it more challenging. Conde explained that the experiment involved the launch of two two-stage rockets and one four-stage rocket. The two-stage rockets were deployed in central Alaska, while the four-stage rocket was deployed near the northern coast of Alaska, conducting two independent tracer experiments simultaneously.
He further explained that since the cameras were set up at different positions for each rocket, they needed to ensure clear footage could be captured from multiple locations.
During the launch of the two rockets (one two-stage rocket and one four-stage rocket), students and researchers from the university stayed at ground observation stations across Alaska to capture images from various locations.
In addition to releasing vapor tracers, the rockets also measured magnetic disturbances caused by the auroras and deployed small free-flying instruments to measure pressure fluctuations in the surrounding areas.
However, the launch of the third rocket (another two-stage rocket) was postponed to April 6 due to engine issues requiring maintenance and evaluation.
The third rocket is expected to release additional vapor tracers at dawn. This will allow the sunlight at high altitudes to activate the tracers while the ground remains dark enough for cameras to capture their reactions to the air movements.