NASA To Launch Three Rockets at the Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse, To Study Atmospheric Changes Brought by Celestial Event

On October 14, millions of people across North, Central, and South America will tilt their heads towards the sky to witness the partial "Ring of Fire" solar eclipse. It is an annular solar eclipse which occurs when the moon is farthest away from the Earth.

This means that a total eclipse will not be possible since the moon will not block out all of the Sun's light. Meanwhile, this once-in-a-decade event will be celebrated by NASA engineers in a different way.

Rare Scientific Opportunity

This phenomenon will bring an annular solar eclipse for a 125 mile-wide path across the southwest region of the U.S. and a partial solar eclipse for the entire continent. The peak of the event will be characterized by a sudden drop in sunlight as 90% of the Sun will be blocked by the moon.

NASA engineers aim to study the impact of solar eclipse on the upper atmosphere of the Earth. Three sounding rockets will be launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico just outside the path of the "ring of fire." If this mission succeeds, this will be the first simultaneous measurements taken from various locations in a very special layer of the atmosphere during a solar eclipse.

During a press briefing at NASA Headquarters, heliophysics program scientist Madhulika Guhathakurta explained that the agency will look for perturbations during the eclipse. The three NASA-funded suborbital rockets will be launched before, during, and after the peak of the eclipse with the goal of gathering data on Earth's atmosphere, electron density, and temperature.

The rockets will be launched 35 minutes apart and will travel to about 50 miles (80 kilometers) up into the ionosphere, the layer of the atmosphere where the air becomes electric. In this region, a sea of ions and electrons waxes and wanes in various temperatures and densities at sunrise and sunset.

Rockets are the best way to study the vertical dimension at the smallest possible spatial scales. They can be launched at just the right moment and explore the lower altitudes in areas where satellites cannot fly.

Ripples on a Pond

The mission is called Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP). It is led by engineering physics professor Aroh Barjatya from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

In a press statement, Bariatya compared the ionosphere to a pond with some gentle ripples on it. Meanwhile, the eclipse is like a motorboat which suddenly rips through the water, creating a wake immediately underneath and behind it, after which the water level momentarily goes up as it rushes back in.

The experts expect that the waves will ripple through the ionosphere as the sunlight vanishes quickly during an eclipse. This is the first time that NASA will do this because such an event only comes once in every 400 years.

After the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, the next similar event to be witnessed over the contiguous U.S. will be in 2044. Meanwhile, the next annular solar eclipse after this year will take place in 2046.