NASA to study atmospheric storms that disrupt satellites

Last Updated: Sunday, April 28, 2013 - 16:26

Washington: A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will help better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth`s upper atmosphere, which can interfere with satellite communication and global positioning signals.

The mission, called Equatorial Vortex Experiment (EVEX) will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere from an atoll in the Pacific in the next few weeks.


The ionosphere is a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. This layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves such as those sent down to the ground by GPS satellites or any satellite communicating with Earth travel.

The ionosphere begins about 96.5 km above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere.

Governed by Earth`s magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the Sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.




"We`re looking at the two highest regions of the equatorial ionosphere, called the E and F regions," said Erhan Kudeki, the principal investigator for the mission at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

"Violent ionospheric storms can occur in the equatorial F-region a few hours after sunset and if we can better understand what causes these storms, we`ll be able to better mitigate their effects on communication and navigation systems," Kudeki said.




First Published: Sunday, April 28, 2013 - 16:23

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