GI Press Releases
Two rockets were successfully launched from Poker Flat Research Range at 12:50 and 1:09 a.m. Tuesday as part of a UAF Geophysical Institute-lead experiment to study winds in the upper atmosphere related to the aurora. 
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.
Each year more than 20 kids head to Alaska through the Make a Wish Foundation, usually to take part in summer activities. But this year, things are operating a bit differently. Chelsea Hodges, a teenager from Virginia, is traveling across the continent to see the aurora in Alaska’s Interior during the heart of winter.
The Geophysical Institute (GI) and affiliated staff have been tapped to share their knowledge on the aurora and help make Hodges’s wish to witness the northern lights, a reality. Neal Brown, director of the Alaska Space Grant Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and adjunct faculty member of the GI, will meet with Hodges and her family before they view the aurora from Chena Hot Springs Resort next week. He will explain how the aurora is formed, and why the Fairbanks area is such a fine spot for viewing the dazzling lights.
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.
