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Астронет: Астрономическая картинка дня Эксперимент AZURE: исследования атмосферы над Норвегией http://www.variable-stars.ru/db/msg/1465742/eng |
Credit & Copyright: Yang Sutie
Explanation:
What's happening in the sky?
The atmosphere over northern
Norway
appeared quite strange for about 30 minutes last Friday
when colorful clouds, dots, and plumes suddenly appeared.
The colors were actually created by the NASA-funded
Auroral
Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment
(AZURE) which dispersed gas tracers to probe winds in Earth's
upper
atmosphere.
AZURE's tracers originated from two short-lived
sounding rockets
launched from the
AndЬya Space
Center in Norway.
The harmless gases,
trimethylaluminum
and a
barium/strontium mixture,
were released into the
ionosphere
at altitudes of 115 and 250 km.
The vapor
trails were observed
dispersing
from several ground stations.
Mapping how
AZURE's
vapors
dispersed should increase humanity's understanding of how the
solar wind
transfers energy to the Earth and powers
aurora.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.