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March
16, 2007 It may have been 40
degrees below zero at the Four 30- to
40-foot-long NASA suborbital sounding rockets
were launched into the night sky within a period of 16 minutes as part
of the
HEX 2 project, a collaborative effort between the “We had
absolutely ideal conditions for the launches,” said
Clemson physics professor Miguel Larsen. “We are interested
in the auroral
displays because they produce electrical currents that heat the
atmosphere.
Wind patterns become altered as the atmosphere heats up, and this can
cause
changes in satellite orbits and interference with radio
communications.” The rockets carried
chemical tracer experiments from Larsen
and instruments from Clemson assistant physics professor Gerald
Lehmacher. At
60 miles above the ground, the chemical tracer glows and can be tracked
as it
is carried by winds high up in the atmosphere. The instruments measured
the
changes in atmospheric pressure created by the heat. The rocket range is
located 30 miles north of Twelve undergraduate
and four graduate students from Clemson
participated in the NASA-funded study.
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