Clemson physicists will launch rockets this month to study high-level winds

Published: March 8, 2012

When Clemson University physicists Miguel Larsen and Gerald Lehmacher study high-altitude winds, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the research yourself. On a clear night in late March, five NASA rockets will pierce the upper atmosphere more than 60 miles above the Earth to disperse chemical tracers that will be observed by cameras in New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina. (See NASA multimedia presentation.)

Larsen and Lehmacher will analyze that data to learn more about the high-altitude winds and their connection to the complicated electrical current patterns that surround Earth. Such knowledge will help scientists better model the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage manmade satellites and disrupt communications systems. The experiment also will help explain how atmospheric disturbances can be transported across the planet in merely a day or two.

Long, white clouds from the experiment should be visible along the Atlantic Coast for about 20 minutes from Myrtle Beach to southern New
Hampshire and as far west as West Virginia.

"This area shows winds much larger than expected," Larsen said. "We don't yet know what we're going to see, but there is definitely something unusual going on. This will help us understand the big question about what is driving these fast winds."