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NASA will launch rockets from Kwajalein Atoll to study Sporadic-E layers, high-altitude clouds that disrupt radio communications, affecting air traffic and military radars.
An animated illustration depicts Sporadic-E layers forming in the lower portions of the ionosphere, causing radio signals to reflect back to Earth before reaching higher layers of the ionosphere. (NASA)
NASA is set to launch a series of rockets from a remote Pacific island, specifically Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, to study ‘mysterious’, high-altitude cloud-like structures. These formations can potentially interfere with critical communication systems, making them a significant area of research.
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.
Researchers aim to study the Sporadic-E layers in the lower ionosphere, where they cause radio signals to bounce back to Earth instead of reaching the upper ionospheric layers.
This reflection of radio signals causes a range of issues for radio communications. Air traffic controllers and marine radio users may receive signals from distant areas, incorrectly attributing them to nearby sources. Additionally, military radars may detect false targets or “ghosts” and receive distorted signals that are hard to interpret.
As per NASA, Sporadic-E layers are constantly forming, moving, and dissipating — making such disruptions difficult to anticipate.
Aroh Barjatya, the SEED mission’s principal investigator, said, “These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to the 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 the blanketing Sporadic-E layer.”
“There’s a lot of interest in predicting these layers and understanding their dynamics because of how they interfere with communications,” he added.
The ionosphere, a region of Earth’s atmosphere spanning 60 to 1,000 kilometres, consists of charged particles or ions. These ions are partly derived from meteors that burn up in the atmosphere, leaving behind trails of ionised elements like iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium suspended in the sky.
These “heavy metals,” which are more massive than the ionosphere’s usual particles, tend to settle at lower altitudes, typically below 140 kilometres. At times, they aggregate to form dense clusters known as Sporadic-E layers.
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