NASA Launching Rockets To Probe 'Mysterious' Clouds In Ionosphere

NASA is planning to launch rockets from a remote Pacific island to study 'mysterious', high-altitude cloud-like structures that can potentially disrupt critical communication systems. Uncrewed suborbital spacecraft carrying scientific instruments would be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the three-week window, starting Friday (Jun 13), under the mission called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED.

The scientists are hoping to understand the Sporadic-E layers that form in the lower portions of the ionosphere, causing radio signals to reflect to Earth before reaching higher layers of the ionosphere.

This reflection creates a host of problems for radio communications. For instance, air traffic controllers and marine radio users may pick up the signals from distant regions, mistaking them for nearby sources. Meanwhile, the military radars might detect false targets, also called "ghosts", or receive jumbled signals that are difficult to decipher.

As per NASA, Sporadic-E layers are constantly forming, moving, and dissipating -- making such disruptions difficult to anticipate.

"These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to naked eye, and can only be seen by radars. In the radar plots, some layers appear like patchy and puffy clouds, while others spread out, similar to an overcast sky, which we call blanketing Sporadic-E layer," said Aroh Barjatya, the SEED mission's principal investigator.

"There's a lot of interest in predicting these layers and understanding their dynamics because of how they interfere with communications," he added.

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How are Sporadic-E layers formed?

The ionosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere that stretches from about 60 to 1,000 kilometres, is made up of charged particles or ions. Some of these ions come from meteors, which burn up in the atmosphere and leave traces of ionised iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium suspended in the sky.

These "heavy metals" are more massive than the ionosphere's typical residents and tend to sink to lower altitudes, below 140 kilometres. Occasionally, they clump together to create dense clusters known as Sporadic-E layers.

While scientists can explain the presence of Sporadic-E layers when they form at midlatitudes, they are yet to have a complete understanding of their presence near Earth's equator. The Kwajalein Atoll is the closest place to the magnetic equator from which NASA can launch rockets to understand the phenomenon.