People living in the northern part of the state will have a chance to watch rockets soar through aurora-lit skies for the next couple of weeks.
Starting on the night of March 24, the research rockets will launch intermittently from ground stations all over Interior Alaska and the Arctic — from Eagle in the east to Utquiagvik in the north and all the way down to the Poker Flat Research Range, about 35 miles from Fairbanks.
It’s all part of a NASA experiment called Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events, or “AWESOME,” which seeks to observe how auroras affect Earth’s upper atmosphere. Scientists hope the study might also improve space weather forecasts. The idea is to measure the timing and strength of the energy waves thrown around by this spring’s strong aurora.
Don Hampton, a scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a partner on the AWESOME project, said the way the aurora interacts with the atmosphere works somewhat like ripples on the surface of a body of water.
“The aurora is sort of a rapid energy input,” he said. “It's like dropping a big pebble into a lake. And when you do that, the atmosphere actually heats up. You will see what are called atmospheric gravity waves come out from sources like that. So, the idea is to look for that.”
Hampton said spectators are in for a pretty spectacular light show, with the rockets emitting a glowing, multi-colored vapor trail for more than 10 minutes at a time — and that’s not even including the aurora. He said it’s no coincidence that the experiment is taking place right now.
“We're at what's called the solar max, so we get a lot of aurora,” Hampton said. “Typically, this time of the year, there's at least a little bit more of a chance of seeing active aurora. That has to do with sort of the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field at the time.”
Depending on weather conditions, the rockets will blast off in a window of time from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. The last possible launch will be on the night of April 6.
To get live updates on when the rockets will be visible, you can text PFRRLAUNCHES to the number (866) 485-7641. You can also check the live feed on the Poker Flat Facebook page.
