NASA's Solar-Eclipse Mission Explained: How 3 Rockets Will Decode Solar Impact On Earth's Atmosphere

Space agency NASA will launch three rockets during the annular solar eclipse over the weekend.

What Happened: The mission — known as Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path or APEP — is aimed at studying how the drop in sunlight during the eclipse affects the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The sun is expected to dim to 10% of its normal brightness during the eclipse. The team intends to launch three sounding rockets before, during, and after the local peak eclipse.

Each of the three will deploy scientific instruments that measure changes in electric and magnetic fields, density, and temperature, the space agency added.

“Those in the vicinity of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico might notice sudden bright streaks across the sky: trails of scientific rockets, hurtling toward the eclipse's shadow,” NASA said in a statement.

Why It Matters: The upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere, becomes electric in the presence of the sun, only to neutralize in the absence of it.

"If you think of the ionosphere as a pond with some gentle ripples on it, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water," said Professor Aroh Barjatya who leads the mission. Several instruments reported detected atmospheric changes during the 2017 total solar eclipse.

"As we become more dependent on space-based assets, we need to understand and model all perturbations in the ionosphere," Barjatya added.

The upcoming eclipse will be visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America.

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