Why is NASA launching rockets into the 'ring of fire' eclipse?
NASA
NASA scientists will be at work on Oct 14, the daythe annular solar eclipse or the Ring of Fire solar eclipse occurs.While skywatchers and eclipse chasers in America will watch the sun dimto 10% of its normal brightness, NASA will be busy firing rockets as part of the mission.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University engineering physics professor, Aroh Barjatya is in charge of a NASA mission that will launch three rockets to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects the atmosphere during the eclipse.
The mission is known as Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path or APEP.
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The rockets will launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and will be directed particularly at the ionosphere. The ionosphere's temperature and density will decrease during the eclipse, producing a wave-like effect that may interfere with GPS and other satellite communications.
“If you think of the ionosphere as a pond with some gentle ripples on it, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water,” Barjatya said in a statement.
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“It creates a wake immediately underneath and behind it, and then the water level momentarily goes up as it rushes back in," he added.
Three rockets to be launched in succession
APEP team will launch three rockets in quick succession— one 35 minutes before the local peak eclipse, one during the eclipse, and one 35 minutes later.
APEP future projects
This is not the only launch for the APEP. On April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse will sweep the United States from Texas to Maine, the APEP rockets that were launched in New Mexico will be recovered and then launched once more from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Although the April launches will provide a chance to gauge how far-reaching an eclipse's effects are, they will be farther from the eclipse path than the October annular eclipse.
(With inputs from agencies)