Space Physics
Poker Flat Research Range has extended its rocket season with a third launch window. The addition will give two rocket missions designed to study the aurora more time to perform their experiments. From March 19 through April 7, scientists will look for the optimal weather and aurora conditions to launch six rockets. 
Live audio coverage of Poker Flat Research Range’s rocket launch countdown is now available to the public via the Internet. For the remainder of the 2003 launch season, near real-time audio coverage including broadcasts of each of the six remaining launches can be accessed by visiting http://carrot.pfrr.alaska.edu/poker.
Four rockets are scheduled to launch in rapid succession from Poker Flat Research Range when the weather is clear and calm and aurora conditions are suitable between February 22 and March 10 as part of a mission to study high-latitude heating during an auroral substorm event. Two of the rockets in the JOULE experiment each will carry instruments to measure light and small-scale electrical currents in the upper atmosphere.
Rocket scientists from the UAF Geophysical Institute will join veteran Astronaut and NASA Chief Scientist Shannon Lucid for a series of live interactions for students from Poker Flat Research Range on February 22 and March 1.
UAF Geophysical Institute Assistant Professor of Physics Mark Conde will attempt to turn rocket science on its side with an aurora experiment with a launch window of February 22 through March 10. Conde is the principal investigator of the first institute-led rocket launch at Poker Flat Research Range since 1995.
After six nights of waiting for the optimal weather and auroral conditions to occur, the first rocket of the 2003 season was successfully launched from Poker Flat Research Range yesterday at 10:50 p.m. The rocket, a two-stage Terrier-Black Brant IX, captured measurements of high-frequency
wave signals related to the aurora as part of the High Bandwidth Auroral Rocket (HIBAR) experiment.
Poker Flat Research Range will open its 2003 launch season today with a single-rocket mission designed to measure high-frequency wave signals in connection with the aurora. Known as HIBAR, the high bandwidth auroral rocket mission will have until February 8 to get the right weather and auroral conditions to launch a two-stage Terrier-Black Brant IX sounding rocket into the aurora at altitudes where the high-frequency waves form.
Seven rockets carrying experiments used to study the aurora are scheduled for launch from Poker Flat Research Range this winter. The projects include a group of four rockets launched in rapid succession to measure wind in the upper atmosphere and one rocket that will turn on its side mid-flight, allowing it to pierce a curtain of aurora horizontally.
The 2002 Leonid meteor showers will be visible in Alaska the evening of Monday, November 18th, weather permitting. This year’s storm is forecasted to be up to two times more active than last year.
Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will be teaming with those at ten other institutions to take part in the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission over the next six years. The mission, recently funded by NASA as part of the Small Explorer program, will
study clouds at the edge of space to resolve why they form and why they have been increasing over the last 30 years.
