Earth  ID: 10949

Glowing Winds

At the outer limit of Earth's atmosphere, located more than 60 miles above the surface, mysterious winds rushing at speeds up to 300 miles per hour surround the planet. Little is known about this high altitude jet stream beyond the fact that its complex motion can spread space weather disturbances around the globe, which, in turn, can cause damage to satellites and disruption to communication systems. To observe the jet stream's wind patterns, NASA launched five 35-foot long sounding rockets packed with a chemical tracer over the Atlantic Ocean on March 27, 2012. Cameras on the ground tracked the movement of the glowing, milky-white clouds that developed in the early morning sky as the tracer deployed from the rockets and interacted with the jet stream. Watch the videos below to learn more about this experiment and see the rockets blast off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
 

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For More Information

NASA.gov


Story Credits

Visualizers/Animators:
Walt Feimer (HTSI)
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)
Trent L. Schindler (USRA)

Video Editor:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Narrator:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Producer:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Lead Scientist:
Miguel Larsen (Clemson University)

Lead Writer:
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10949

Keywords:
DLESE >> Narrated
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth