NASA’s Equatorial Vortex Experiment : 無料・フリー素材/写真
NASA’s Equatorial Vortex Experiment / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示 2.1 |
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| 説明 | Wind blows through the trees as a NASA team gets ready to launch a sounding rocket in Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. The sounding rocket will study how similar winds much higher up in the atmosphere interact with charged particles to create turbulence that can disrupt radio communications all around the equator. Credit: NASA----A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will launch from an atoll in the Pacific this spring. The mission will help scientists better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere that can negatively affect satellite communication and global positioning signals.The mission, called EVEX, for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment, will launch into a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. Called the ionosphere, this layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves – such as those sent down to the ground by global positioning system (GPS) satellites or, indeed, any satellite communicating with Earth – travel. The ionosphere begins about 60 miles 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.EVEX will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere above the South Pacific. This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous evenings, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more. The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed. Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.The launch window for EVEX is from April 27 to May 10. The team will decide when to fly based on conditions in the ionosphere on any given night. Read more at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/news/evex.htmlNASA image use policy.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.Follow us on TwitterLike us on FacebookFind us on Instagram |
| 撮影日 | 2013-04-18 16:08:34 |
| 撮影者 | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , USA |
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| カメラ | NIKON D40X , NIKON CORPORATION |
| 露出 | 0.003 sec (1/400) |
| 開放F値 | f/10.0 |
| 焦点距離 | 55 mm |