On March 3, 2014, at 6:09 a.m. EST, a NASA-funded sounding rocket launched straight into an aurora over Venetie, Alaska. The Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics – Electron Correlative Experiment, or GREECE, sounding rocket mission, which launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Poker Flat, Alaska, will study classic curls in the aurora in the night sky.
Marilia Samara is principal investigator for the mission at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Samara said:
The conditions were optimal. We can’t wait to dig into the data.