9:55 AM | NASA/Wallops to try again tonight, but clouds are a concern
Paul Dorian
A little humor
Overview
NASA will try once again this evening, June 20th, to launch a sounding rocket from the Wallops Island Facility that should light up the skies with colorful artificial clouds. The original launch attempt was scheduled for May 31st, but clouds, haze, high winds and even boats in the hazard area have caused thirteen postponements in the past few weeks and clouds are again a concern for tonight. These artificial clouds or vapor tracers will allow scientists on the ground to visually track winds at high altitudes on the order of 100 miles above the Earth's surface.
Canisters will release a substance that should create a colorful glow in the early morning sky. Photograph: NASA Wallops Flight Facility
Discussion
A two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket is scheduled to launch between 9:06 and 9:21 PM from the NASA/Wallops Facility. The rocket will be carrying ten canisters about the size of a one-liter drink bottle which will be deployed in the air about 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload. The luminescent clouds are being released by NASA during a rocket launch from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's eastern shore as the space agency tests a new system to support studies of the ionosphere, a layer of the earth's upper atmosphere. The canisters will deploy about 5 minutes after launch and will generate blue-green and red vapor artificial clouds through the interaction of barium, strontium and cupric-oxide. The tracers will be released at altitudes 96 to 124 miles high and pose no hazard to residents along the mid-Atlantic coast.
This map shows the projected visibility of the vapor tracers during the May 31 mission. The vapor tracers may be visible from New York to North Carolina and westward to Charlottesville, Virginia. Credits: NASA
NASA has two ground stations -- one at Wallops in Virginia and one in Duck, N.C. -- where cameras are set up to track the artificial clouds and study the dynamics of the Earth's ionosphere. The vapor tracers could be visible from New York to North Carolina and as far west as Charlottesville, Virginia. The total flight time is expected to be about 8 minutes and the payload will land in the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles from Wallops Island and will not be recovered.
The latest GOES-16 satellite image features frontal boundary zone clouds over Wallops ISland, VA and the Outer Banks of NC (in circled region); courtesy NOAA
Live coverage is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Wallops Ustream site. As far as the weather is concerned, you guessed it, good chance of clouds over the Outer Banks and perhaps even over the launch site at Wallops Island, VA.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
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