Two rockets will be launched into the northern lights.
The launch window for NASA's Ion-neutral Coupling during Active Aurora mission opened on March 23 and will run through April 1st. Bad weather scrubbed the Wednesday launch.
Scientists hope to send two rockets loaded with tools into the active Aurora borealis. They plan to measure the winds, temperatures and densities of the plasma.
When charged particles from space crash into the Earth's upper atmosphere, the dancing lights of the Aurora form. The electrons in the atmospheric molecule are boosted by the collisions, causing them to go to a higher energy state. When the buzz dies down, the electrons drop back down to their original energy state, releasing a photon, or particle of light. The curtains of green, violet and red are seen at polar latitudes.
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The boundary between neutral gases in the atmosphere and charged gas in the upper atmosphere is something that the team is interested in. The boundary layer between lower-atmosphere neutral gases and higher-atmosphere plasma is affected by the aurora. The heat that researchers can measure is caused by the disturbance.
We all know that if we rub our hands together you will get heat.
The first of the team's rockets will release colorful vapors as it travels to a height of 186 miles. The chemicals that make fireworks colorful will drift in the atmosphere, allowing researchers to trace atmospheric wind. The next rocket is designed to reach a peak height of 125 miles (200 km) in order to carry instruments to measure temperature and density. The rockets will fall back to Earth.
The results should show how the aurora changes the boundary layer between neutral gas and the sun. The boundary might change shape.
All of these factors make this an interesting physics problem to examine.
The rockets were launched from the Poker Flat Research Range.
It was originally published on Live Science.
The Wednesday (March 23) launch was scrubbed due to weather.
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