Nasa has launched the first of four sounding rockets into space to study the structure of auroras.
Launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, US, the newly launched Black Brant IX rocket carried instruments, developed under the Ionospheric Structuring: In Situ and Ground-based Low Altitude Studies (ISINGLASS) mission, to an altitude of 225 miles.
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Under ISINGLASS, two more rockets with identical payloads will be launched into two different types of auroras, an inverted-V arc and a dynamic Alfenic curtain.
Developed in collaboration with Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US, the ISINGLASS payload also includes the deployment of a sub-payload and also several instrumented deployable canisters.
The mission’s miniature subsystems and the main payload are expected to provide a multipoint view of spatial structures within the aurora.
Nasa sounding rocket programme office chief Phil Eberspeaker said: “It was good to successfully launch the first of the two rockets for the ISINGLASS mission.
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By GlobalData“Now our attention turns towards launching the remaining ISINGLASS rocket and the two rockets for the Neutral Jets in Auroral Arcs mission.”
Apart from the remaining three ISINGLASS rockets, two additional rockets supporting the Neutral Jets in Auroral Arcs mission are scheduled to be launched before 3 March.
Nasa Auroral Arcs mission principal investigator Rob Pfaff said: “Electric fields drive the ionosphere which in turn are predicted to set up enhanced neutral winds within an aurora arc.
“This experiment will seek to understand the height-dependent coupling processes that create localised neutral 'jets’ within the aurora and their associated heating and neutral structuring.”
As part of the Auroral Arcs mission, the space agency will launch two 56ft long Black Brant IX rockets nearly-simultaneously.
