Anonymous ID: fb6c47 March 29, 2024, 7:07 p.m. No.20650417   ๐Ÿ—„๏ธ.is ๐Ÿ”—kun   >>0422 >>0428 >>0436 >>0496 >>0748 >>0761 >>0767 >>0774 >>0932 >>0948 >>0984

Why are NASA firing rockets at the eclipse?

 

NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moonโ€™s Shadow During Solar Eclipse

 

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earthโ€™s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.

 

The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASAโ€™s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024. The mission is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab.

 

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/nasa-to-launch-sounding-rockets-into-moons-shadow-during-solar-eclipse/