Science at the Cusp: NASA Rocket to Study Mysterious Area Above the North Pole

UPDATE Dec. 1, 2021 – The CREX-2 payload was successfully launched at 3:25 a.m. EST from the Andøya Space Center in Norway.  The four-stage Oriole IV sounding rocket carried the payload to an apogee of 392 miles.  Preliminary reports are that the flight was successful and the ampules carrying the vapors performed as planned.  Good data was received including data from the vapor imaging team.

Strange things happen in Earth’s atmosphere at high latitudes. Around local noon, when the Sun is at its highest point, a funnel-shaped gap in our planet’s magnetic field passes overhead. Earth’s magnetic field shields us from the solar wind, the stream of charged particles spewing off the Sun. The gap in that field, called the polar cusp, allows the solar wind a direct line of access to Earth’s atmosphere.

Radio and GPS signals behave strangely when they travel through this part of the sky. In the last 20 years, scientists and spacecraft operators noticed something else unusual as spacecraft pass through this region: They slow down.

The vapor tracer ampule doors are open on the CREX-2 payload during testing at the Andøya Space Center.

Credits: NASA