Few natural sights are revered as much as the aurora borealis, and scientists at NASA are hoping that two new rocket missions will help illuminate the processes that lead to such a magnificent light display. The two missions, with launch windows that opened January 21, 2025, are aiming for the Alaskan night sky, where auroras shine regularly during the winter.
Auroras are byproducts of the interaction between solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere, containing its magnetic field. Following a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection, plasma from the Sun is propelled through space. When this burst of energy reaches the Earth’s magnetic field, electrons start colliding with gasses like oxygen and nitrogen, causing them to give off a vibrant glow that generates auroras.
With the new missions, NASA scientists want to know exactly why these collisions happen in the first place. The missions are part of NASA’s Sounding Rockets program, which launches small rockets containing scientific instruments into space. These rockets usually spend a brief period of time in space (5 to 20 minutes) and travel at lower speeds, making them suitable for some experiments that satellites can’t conduct.
The Role of Electron Acceleration
One mission, codenamed GIRAFF (Ground Imaging to Rocket investigation of Auroral Fast Features), will send two rockets. Each one will fly into a different type of aurora: one is intended for fast-pulsating auroras, which flash on and off a few times a second, and the other for flickering auroras, which flash up to 15 times a second.
The variation between fast-pulsating and flickering auroras may lie in the different ways electrons accelerate. To better understand this concept, both rockets will measure key factors in the electron acceleration process, including the energy, quantity, and relative arrival times of electron populations that form the auroras.
Pursuing Black Auroras
The other mission, Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor, will study black auroras, also known as anti-auroras. These contradictory-sounding phenomena appear to lack light in certain regions, leaving gaps of dark space in an otherwise colorful aurora.
The European Space Agency’s Cluster mission, featuring four satellites examining the Earth’s magnetosphere, has previously observed black auroras. Astronomers believe their creation involves a process that deviates from the normal trajectory taken by electrons that arrive from solar storms; rather than proceed further into the Earth’s ionosphere (the ionized upper atmosphere where charged particles reside), the electrons likely reverse direction and slip back into space.
The rocket for this mission will head for black aurora regions to survey electron populations, which researchers hope will provide insight on the reason behind the reversal of electrons.
A Busy Year For Auroras
The aurora borealis moves in a somewhat unpredictable manner, making it tricky to target them precisely. To prepare, NASA researchers will track the auroras with ground-based cameras, looking to determine the right path that the rockets should take. They plan to aim the rockets not at the exact location of the auroras, but where they predict the auroras could appear.
These missions come at a time when the sun is very active, leading to higher frequency and intensity of solar storms. Last year, the Sun reached its solar maximum as its magnetic field flipped, representing the peak of activity during its 11-year solar cycle. The effects of the solar maximum will continue to be visible here on Earth for much of 2025, explaining why this year’s auroras are expected to put on a strong show.
Read More: The Dazzling Sun of 2024
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Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
