04 April 2012
Fig. 1
The image shows glowing clouds produced by NASA’s ATREX rockets in the upper atmosphere, near the edge of space.
NASA/Chris Perry
NASA’s Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) successfully launched five rockets in the early morning hours of 27 March 2012, from the Wallops Flight Facility, as part of a study of currents in the upper atmosphere. The ATREX rockets launched at intervals of 80 seconds.
Each ATREX rocket released a chemical tracer that created milky, white clouds at the boundary of space, at an altitude of about 100 km above Earth’s surface.
ATREX will collect data that will allow researchers to better understand the process responsible for the high-altitude jet stream, a narrow fast-flowing air current, located at altitudes of about 100-110 km.
References
NASA
www.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist