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NASA Studying Space Weather from Puerto Rico

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    February 6, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Keith Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA
(Phone:  757/824-1579)

RELEASE:  98-23

NASA STUDYING SPACE WEATHER FROM PUERTO RICO

       Starting Feb. 12, NASA will launch a two-month campaign in 
Puerto Rico to study space weather using rockets and ground 
instruments, including the world's largest radio telescope in 
Arecibo, Puerto Rico.  The project is expected to provide 
information that ultimately will help improve the reliability of 
radio and satellite communications.

       Using a temporary range at Tortuguero on the north coast of 
Puerto Rico, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight 
Facility, Wallops Island, VA, is scheduled to launch 11 suborbital 
rockets between Feb. 12 and Apr. 9, 1998, as part of a project 
called Coqui Dos.  The project is a continuation of a 1992 project 
called El Coqui, named after a species of native frog which is an 
ecological and cultural symbol of Puerto Rico.

       "NASA, in association with several universities and other 
organizations, will launch these rockets to make measurements of 
electrical and turbulent layers that occur in the ionosphere, 
approximately 62 miles above the surface of the Earth," said 
Miguel Larson, campaign scientist from Clemson University, SC.

       "People tend to think that space is a quiet place with no 
activity.  However, over the years we have come to realize that 
the contrary is true," said Mike Kelley, a professor at Cornell 
University, Ithica, NY, and principal investigator for two of the 
rocket launches. 

       In fact, the layers that are the focus of the Coqui Dos 
study are very active features that are responsible for 
disruptions of radio, television, and satellite communications.

      The activity is the result of the interaction between "space 
weather" and the Earth's atmosphere, according to Kelley, who also 
was the campaign scientist for NASA rocket launches from Puerto 
Rico in 1992.  Space weather refers to the complex interactions of 
the Solar wind (the fast-moving stream of particles emanating from 
the Sun), the Sun's magnetic field and the Earth's magnetic field 
and atmosphere.  The 1992 project had a 100 percent success rate 
and ten scientific papers have been published based on the data 
obtained, Kelley said.

       Just as studies of the lower atmosphere in the 1960s led to 
our current understanding of weather and improved weather 
forecasts, the Coqui Dos studies are expected to lead to a better 
understanding of the ionosphere so that we can predict activity in 
this region in the future, Kelley said.

       Puerto Rico was selected as the launch site due to the 
availability of the National Science Foundation's National 
Astronomy and Ionospheric Center.  The Arecibo radio telescope 
provides unique capabilities for detecting the activity within the 
electrical layers.  Such information is needed for both deciding 
when to launch the rockets and for the interpretation of the 
rocket measurements after the flight.  The Arecibo radio telescope 
is the largest in the world and is an essential part of the 
scientific mission, Larsen said.

       During the Coqui Dos campaign, a total of 11 launches will 
be carried out as part of six separate sets of measurements.  All 
the launches will be during the nighttime hours when ionospheric 
instabilities are present in the high altitude region above Puerto 
Rico.  In some cases, two or three rocket launches may occur in 
one night.

       Five of the rockets have payloads containing small amounts 
of the chemical trimethyaluminum (TMA), which will be released in 
the ionosphere at an altitude between 50 and 93 miles altitude.  
When TMA is released it forms a cloud that is luminescent for 10 
to 20 minutes.  These clouds can be tracked visually and with 
camera equipment to determine where the atmospheric turbulent 
layers occur.  The milky-white clouds should be visible within 
several hundred miles of the launch site, across most of Puerto 
Rico and perhaps on some of the neighboring islands.  The harmless 
by-products disperse for thousands of miles before settling into 
the upper atmosphere.

       Three payloads being launched are chemical only, two 
payloads contain TMA and scientific instruments and six payloads 
contain instruments only.

      The rockets will be launched over the Atlantic Ocean to 
altitudes of from 71 to 236 miles, and will fall in the ocean 
beyond 30 miles off shore.  The launches, which typically will 
occur between 7 and 11 p.m., should be visible from most of Puerto 
Rico, especially along the northern coast and San Juan.  The 
flights will last approximately 10 to 15 minutes each.

       Further information on the Puerto Rico project, including a 
schedule of the rocket launches, is available on the Coqui Dos 
home page at:

       http://www.wff.nasa.gov/~web/PRCampaign/CoquiDos.html

       The Coqui Dos project is being conducted under the 
suborbital Sounding Rocket Program, which is managed at Wallops 
for  NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.  The program 
consists of approximately 25 sounding rockets launched each year 
from various locations worldwide.

                         - end -