Three rockets will be launched to analyze the atmosphere

Although in Spain it can only be seen in the Canary Islands and Galicia, the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, is a first-class astronomical event that NASA will not miss. In some areas of North America it will be dark for a few minutes, during which… The US space agency will launch a total of 3 rockets into the sky.

The goal is It reveals some unknown consequences of this type of phenomenon Above the ionosphere. The rockets will carry on board a series of sensors specially designed for this occasion and will collect a series of data of scientific interest.

Once transported to dry land, NASA will use it to “study how the upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight temporarily dims on part of the planet,” as the US space agency itself explains. The ionosphere is the region in which there is At an altitude ranging between 90 and 500 kilometers above the Earth's surface It has emerged as one of the most important telecommunications companies.

“It's an electrified area It reflects and refracts radio signals, and also affects satellite communications “As the signals pass,” said Aroh Barjatya, mission commander and director of the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory. “Understanding the ionosphere and developing models that help us predict disturbances are crucial to ensuring that our world, which is increasingly reliant on communications, operates without problems.

Rocket probes toward the eclipse

The ionosphere forms the band between the lower atmosphere – where humanity lives and breathes – and the absolute vacuum of space. It is composed of A A wide range of electrically charged particles Through the solar energy they receive. When night falls, those ionized molecules relax themselves and recombine as neutral molecules.

“However, Earth's terrestrial and space climate can influence these particles, energizing the area and making it important Find out what the ionosphere will look like At a certain time,” they explained in a note. In this case, because of an eclipse.

As the eclipse's shadow travels through the atmosphere, it creates a rapid local sunset It causes widespread waves and atmospheric disturbances. They claim that these affect different radio communication frequencies. Collecting the data will help scientists “validate and improve existing models that help predict potential disruptions to our communications, especially those that use high frequencies.”

One of the challenges NASA faces is this Surveillance satellites are often insufficient To study these electrical interactions in the ionosphere during the eclipse. These are phenomena that last only a few minutes, and the orbit cannot be changed to obtain better data without compromising the entire mission.

Since the exact date and time of the total solar eclipse are known, NASA can launch sounding rockets aimed at studying the effects of the eclipse at the right time and at all heights of the ionosphere, the agency says. The three participating aircraft will be launched from NASA's Wallops (Virginia) Flight Facility It will reach an altitude of about 420 kilometers to measure the density of charged particles And the neutral, electric and magnetic fields surrounding them.

“Each missile will deploy four secondary instruments The size of a 2 liter soda bottle which also measures the same data [que los propios cohetes]“So it will be similar to the results of 15 missiles, although only 3 will be launched,” explains Barjatya.

The sounding missiles will be launched at 3 different times: 45 minutes before, during and 45 minutes after the eclipse Local maximum. “These periods are important for collecting data on how the sudden disappearance of the Sun affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that would interfere with our communications.”

The second time in 6 months

Last October, another similar astronomical event occurred in the United States. On that occasion it was an annular solar eclipse NASA arranged a similar operation using sounding rockets. On that occasion, the same three aircraft took off from the White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico, USA) with an interval of 35 minutes between each launch and reached an altitude of between 348 and 353 km.

Once restored, the rockets were refurbished and refurbished with new instruments and will, if there are no changes, participate in the total solar eclipse next April. “Missiles are the best means of surveillance “They can wait for a timely launch and explore lower altitudes where satellites cannot fly,” Barjatya said in October.

Scientists noted that when the sounding rockets were launched last October A sharp decrease in the density of charged particles As the shadow of the annular eclipse passes over the atmosphere. “We saw disturbances capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket, which was before the peak of the local eclipse,” Barjatya says.

“We are very excited to relaunch them during the total eclipse. To see if the disturbances start at the same height The next total solar eclipse over the United States will not occur until 2044, so Monday's experiments represent a unique opportunity for scientists to collect important data.