Photographer Ulrike
Haug visited the Poker
Flat Research Range in
Alaska early on March to capture these images of further Aurora experiments.
This time scientists launched a total of four sounding rockets into the Aurora
including two HEX project rockets at 03:07 am and 03:11 am. The rockets released
long luminous trails into the ionosphere (images below).
Project HEX will help scientists measure how air heated
by aurora rises, by the distortion it creates in a man-made chemical trail dispensed
by two sounding rockets. There are two parts of the HEX mission, a horizontal
and a vertical TMA release. The vertical TMA release between 80-180 km will
allow measurement of horizontal wind shear in the active E-region. The horizontal
and vertical releases together will allow scientists to develop better models
of wind patterns in the E-region.
