[Chaos-l] watch 5 rockets launch with visible contrails at 60 miles altitude... live or via live webcast

[Tony Rice]

Unique opportunity for rocket launches which should be visible from
our area tonight.  Launch window is between midnight local and 1:30
am.

-Tony

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joe Witte- NASA <howard.witte at nasa.gov>
Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Subject: NASA: watch 5 rockets launch with visible contrails at 60
miles altitude... live or via live webcast
To: howard.witte at nasa.gov


UNIQUE WED. NIGHT SKY WATCHING OPPORTUNITY: NASA 5 Rockets visible
along Mid-Atlantic Tonight, Wed, 14th



NASA will launch 5 rockets in approximately 5 minute intervals to
study the super fast (200 to 300 mph) winds way way up  at 60 miles
above the earth and their intimate connection to the complicated
electrical current patterns that surround Earth and that can disrupt
satellite-based communication systems


CONTRAILS:   Chemical contrails from the rockets will be visible from
the ground and triangulating cameras will be used to trace wind
 speeds and turbulent mixing.


Launch from Wallops, VA
Launch Window=EDT, between 11:59 PM Wed, 14th   to 1:30Am Thursday 15th

            Viewers from South Carolina to Pittsburgh to New England
should be able to see these simulated-contrails in the night sky.



For others show your viewers the live webcast:
//sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast

                        CDT:  Wed, 14th  10:59 PM to 12:30 AM
                        MDT:  Wed, 14th  9:59 PM to 11:30 PM
                        PDT:   Wed, 14th  8:59 PM to 10:30 PM


2:14 HD video story/images for posting on your station’s website or
linking to: (:40 to 1:10 is a nice 30 seconds)

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=134891581


TURBOPAUSE:   What will these contrails show?  60 miles altitude marks
the “turbo-pause”: below this level the atmosphere is well mixed with
turbulent, i.e. windy, flows and above this level is the hetrosphere,
where molecular diffusion is the main driver. Watch for contrail
looping due to wind shear below the “turbo-pause” and straighter
contrails higher up above the turbo-pause.


GRAVITY WAVES: The experiment will also help explain how the effects
of atmospheric disturbances such as gravity waves over one part of the
globe can be transported to other parts of the globe in a mere day or
two.

The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX).

             "There is definitely something unusual going on. ATREX
will help us understand the big question about what is driving these
fast winds (of 200 to 300 mph!)” Miguel Larsen, Clemson Univ.


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex.html
MISSION PAGE: IMAGES, details, etc




NOTE:  the winds in this jet stream shouldn't be confused with the
lower jet stream located around 30,000 feet, through which passenger
jets fly and which is reported in weather forecasts.


--
H. Joe Witte
NASA/Adnet,  Goddard
Earth Science Outreach
646-522-9245
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