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NASA
Snaky clouds of tracer chemicals hang in the sky over Virginia after today's five-rocket ATREX launch. The rockets released a stream of trimethyl aluminum, which is considered nontoxic but hazardous because it can ignite in the atmosphere. At high altitudes, the chemical trails took on a luminous glow that allowed scientists to track anomalous wind patterns in the jet stream.
A combination fireworks show and UFO invasion played out in the skies over the U.S. East Coast this morning, thanks to the five-rocket fusillade launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket blasts were part of a $4 million mission called the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment, or ATREX.
The five suborbital sounding rockets were fired off over the course of five minutes, starting just before 5 a.m. ET, to track what's happening in the upper atmosphere. ATREX was designed to help scientists get a snapshot of strange ultra-fast wind patterns in the jet stream by releasing chemical tracers at different times on the edge of outer space, more than 60 miles high. Those tracers created milky white clouds that could be seen from Massachusetts to North Carolina. Here are just a few of the spooky snapshots. For more about the mission, check out the full story.
NASA Wallops
A time-lapse picture taken from near the launch site at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia shows the blazing ascent of the five suborbital rockets, plus the release of the chemical tracers at high altitude.
NASA Wallops
A wide-angle view shows ghostly clouds hanging over Virginia early this morning after the launch of five suborbital rockets for NASA's ATREX mission. The rockets released clouds of chemicals that were used to monitor wind patterns at high altitudes.
Jack Fusco via Space.com
Skywatcher and photographer Jack Fusco snapped this photo of the glowing clouds created by NASA's five-rocket ATREX launch from Seaside Park, N.J., north of the rockets' Virginia launch site.
Jeff Berkes Photography
Astrophotographer Jeff Berkes captured this view of the glowing cloud from West Chester, Pa. Berkes says he's driven hundreds of miles over the past week hoping to get pictures of the launch, which was delayed repeatedly. This time he had to stay at home, but he got an "amazing" view nevertheless. "Watching the rockets scream through the night sky was amazing," he said in an email. "It was even better to watch the tracers spread out from the rockets into the atmosphere. The colors were very intense for a short period and lasted about 30 minutes." For more of Berkes' work, check out his website.
NASA launched five rockets in Virginia on Tuesday. The rockets are part of a mission to better understand jet stream winds. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
More about the mission:
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Cool.
Neat. I've looked for Wallops Island rockets several times from Pittsburgh; I think we're too far away.
Dang, even rockets don't leave "chemtrails" ....... pretty cool.
the rocket's released chemicals into the upper atmosphere to study the air currents at that altitude.
They have been leaving contrails since aircraft heve been flying in the upper cold atmosphere.
Actually in this case they DID intentionally spray powdered aluminum into the upper atmosphere. Of course, the "chemtrail" folks will be touting this experiment forever, claiming "See!! We told you so!"
That's the first thing I thought of too - I can see it now - "They're poisoning us! They spraying mind control chemicals! Get underground get underground!
These "little" missions interest me much more than all the "exploration" missions - the intent here is to collect information much more meaningful and beneficial to our lives here on earth. I can support these missions; the exploration ones not so much.
the big stuff helps to, with big goals comes the need for innovation, and through innovation you get a lot of useful technologies. without the moon landings, your computer wouldn't be small enough to fit under your desk... or on you lap depending on what your viewing this on.
The ironic thing is the same people who criticize NASA's relativly miniscule budget have no problem throwing away trillions of tax dollars on unnecessarry wars in the Middle East and failed porkulus packages.
Exactly DunkinH.
Looking at your page I can see we obviously disagree on about everything else. But we agree on this.
The people who cry about NASA's budget need to realize we've spent less than a half a trillion TOTAL since NASA's start. And the return has been much greater. The private sector has made far more than half a trillion in profit from the innovation. Think Microsoft and Apple alone.
Plus space is still one area where America is unquestioningly in the lead.
So the haters can back off already!
Dangerous, yeah, NASA, DoD, and DoE R&D have all paid for themselves many, many times over. Not necessarily every single project, but on the whole, they have definitely been well worth the expense... and, unfortunately, those seem to be about the only things the current leadership seems willing to cut. As far as technology is concerned, the U.S. is indeed unquestioningly leading in space, but there is a huge question over how long that will remain, since the current administration decided to cancel the entire planned future of U.S. manned spaceflight. Hopefully the private sector will be able to pick up the slack soon. Can you imagine having to fly to space on a Chinese rocket? At least the Russian engineers are usually know what they're doing, but I've read enough research papers from China to know that I don't want to fly in any spacecraft they've built.
Just what the people needed released clouds of dangerous chemicals raining down on them.
Logic physicists,
Based on your comment, is your username meant to be ironic?
If you actually care and aren't just trolling, feel free to read more about the mission either on the Wallops website or other news sources to allay your fear of a chemical rainstorm.
It's headed for Europe. Serves them right.
Right, the chemical involved (trimethyl aluminum) is considered non-toxic but requires special handling because it can ignite spontaneously in air. It also reacts explosively with water. When it was released under the low-pressure conditions in the upper atmosphere, the liquid TMA froze and became luminous.
Health effects Skin and eye contact are the primary routes of exposure to this product.Inhalation of this metal alkyl is unlikely due to the highly reactive nature of the metal alkyl with air and its lowvapor pressure.This material will react with moisture in or on the skin to produce thermal and chemical burns.This product will react with moisture in the eyes to produce severe chemical and thermal burns.Ingestion will result in burning of the mouth, throat and any part of the gastrointestinal system with which the material comes in contact. Nausea and vomiting may occur.
"Logic",
Those effects might be a risk with highly concentrated direct exposure, as in if you sprayed it directly on your skin or inhaled the dust directly into your lungs.
As the very source you quoted (Wikipedia perhaps? You really should cite proper attribution) states, "Inhalation of this metal alkyl is unlikely due to the highly reactive nature of the metal alkyl with air and its lowvapor pressure". In simple language, that means it will completely evaporate and be dispersed long before it ever gets anywhere near the ground.
Breathe easy, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.
Oops, another hazardous material to worry about getting in the wrong hands.
Go NASA.
Oops, another post from Ad'M that is not based on the actual facts.
Another UFO cover up. Throw up some rockets so people won't notice the incoming spacecrafts. But some of us know better.
That's just what the government wants UFOlogists to think. Keep the simple minded occupied with the ol'bait n' switch!
wear tinfoil hats much?
It will only take a nanosecond before someone reports having seen the face of God owing to the Pope's trip. They will take photos and try to sell them on eBay.
We don't need cover-ups any longer, Shandril. You are one of the last 137 remaining humans...the rest of us are all aliens.
Shhh!
Don't worry, we'll be moving them all to a homo sapien sanctuary in Botswana soon anyway.
I'm wondering what this mission will tell us, above and beyond what releasing weather balloons (which can be released to these altitudes) has told us.
It will probably be useful to the private companies becoming involved in space for the purposes of travel and transport. I'm sure Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are paying attention.
The chemical trails take on shapes that are determined by the wind shears and turbulence in the upper atmosphere, so the patterns are easier to read than they would be if you sent up balloons.
OK Alan, interesting that you hoped on to cover, I mean clear this up. The chemicals are of course totally inert (this time). We obviously need to know what happens way up there from a dispersal standpoint if we are ever to leverage the jet stream patterns down the road.
Thanks, Alan. Really like when you comment on something you have written, gives us more info and a personal touch besides. Thanks again.
Thanks Alan. But, a follow up question....Why can't weather balloons release these chemical tracers? It seems that it would be a much less expensive and involved operation to do it that way.
I love articles like these. These scientists behind the ATREX launch are truly amazing. So incredibly smart! I look at the sky every night and it's gorgeous this time of year, with Orion fading but Mars is so beautiful, with Venus and Jupiter early in the evening. I've always felt that you gotta to look BEYOND your own world, at least from time to time; there are so many others out there!
Thanks for sharing.
And the moon is in the seventh house! (I hope that's the lyrics) I live in the country so I get a light show most of the time, lucky me.
Scott M - I would assume that using the sounding rockets (these were suborbital, not orbital) NASA could control the exact timing & placement for tracking. With a high-altitude weather balloon that would be more problematic.
That sounds reasonable, RetiredUSAF ... But more importantly, I just realized that weather balloons can't go as high. High-altitude balloons tend to go blooey at altitudes of around 160,000 feet, which is only half the height that these rockets achieved. So there's no way balloons could have been used for this particular type of experiment.
Alan:
There you go, throwing out those high-faluentin' $20 scientific words: blooey ;)
Wow, those kids at NASA sure like to play with firecrackers, don't they?
AAhhh....our tax payer's $$$$$$ once again being misappropriated ! Just like obama's campaign and presidency...more smoke being blown up our @sses !!!!!!!!
Blah blah blah.
But the pictures are cool right.
I guess you prefer the kind of science experiments that you can do in your mom's basement with rocks and sticks.
Look kids, it's a "Striker1", a rare conservative who also reads about science! Of course, he is not FOR the science, but he looks at it still. It is a start, isn't it?
Investigate high altitude wind patterns? To what end you ask? I'm willing to bet this is part of a bigger program to do more than learn. We are developing the means to control weather and climate, and it will not end well, as usual we will be too smart for our own good and not do it safely.
How many examples do we need of man messing with things he should know better than to? Bio-engineered food, genetic mutation of viruses, DNA manipulation, weather manipulation, not to mention all the classic ways we try and off ourselves, like not paying enough attention to how much trash we generate, inadequate spent fuel rod storage, people peeing 50% of the drugs they take down the drain right back into the aquifer we depend on for drinking water. How long will it take for every female to be ingesting birth control medicine unwillingly just from staying hydrated? Where will we be then, huh?
Mooo-ah-ah-ah!
You've discovered my evil plan!
-Dr. Evil
Yes! That's it!
They're gonna spray this stuff everywhere and then ignite it all at once using the ionospheric HAARP magneto-electric zapper and then once the entire ozone layer is fried we will have no choice but to spend the rest of our money on sunscreen, leading to massive profits for the PABA manufacturing industry, while the earth's population slowly dwindles due to skin cancer.
Or... maybe not.
Time to start investing in Coppertone!
I didn't delve into this in depth, because the issue is addressed in other stories that I'm linking to... But the point is that there are some anomalously high-speed winds in the jet stream that researchers want to understand better. These insights could fit into our understanding of how atmospheric patterns work together. One potential benefit, I suppose, would be better atmospheric modeling for climate (which is a hot topic). Another potential benefit would be making it easier for space zeppelins to go into orbit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5025388/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/airship-groomed-flight-edge-space/
"... climate (which is a hot topic)."
Ba-dump-bump-Tish! Ladies and gentlemen! Mr. Alan Boyle! He'll be all week... be sure to tip your waitresses!
Ooops. Double post. In all seriousness though, thanks Alan, for all your great work and the cool articles you bring to MSNBC for us to argue about. ;)
Chemtrails go public... finally... Hopefully there was no toxic chemical or biological agent in this smoke.
See comments above under #5. The chemicals used are dangerous in high concentration, but they will have long since dissipated before reaching the ground and are no threat to you or anyone. Relax.
Stayed up till 4am trying to see this live LOL Well good on ya for getting it up there. We need all the info we can get on changing patterns!
They could have just looked over the city of New Orleans after Roger God... sacked Sean Payton for the season! The smoke is still rising!
Great photos, good explainer. Thanks!
Wonder how many UFO reports were called in?
Smoke rings?