BROR sounding rocket launch LIVE from Kiruna, Sweden

[Marcel de Bont]

Join us LIVE on our YouTube channel in one hour from now where we will cover the BROR sounding rocket launch. The rocket will activate in the ionosphere and create beautiful light phenomena designed to study the northern lights. The launch window for tonight is between 18:38 and 18:52 local time. If weather conditions deteriorate the launch will be postponed but the weather conditions are good right now! Lets go!

 

[hamateur 1953]

im here!!

[MinYoongi]

Did the launch got scrubbed?

[Marcel de Bont]

Yeah what a shame. Launch scrubbed due to high winds in the upper atmosphere. Next attempt somewhere between 13 and 22 March just after sunset. Will live stream at the next attempt!

[Jesterface23]

The 16th seems like the next best possible window in some current forecast model runs.

[hamateur 1953]

Any news?  Does anyone know if it is still on?? 

[Jesterface23]

From Twitter, it looks like they canceled the 15th attempt with the next attempt on the 16th. I'm not sure what the wind speed limit is at what height, but this upcoming attempt may be the last for over a week.

[Marcel de Bont]

Yeah it seems today or tomorrow will be the last chance they get weather wise. We will keep an eye on it and should there be an attempt tonight we will be streaming it live.

[Marcel de Bont]

The weather is good enough for another attempt tonight. Still some winds higher up so fingers crossed the winds lie down a bit. I am not 100% sure when they will attempt to launch some sources say 18:54 but they posted on Twitter between 18:30 and 19:30. Local time of course. We shall see. We are going live in two hours. @Vancanneyt Sander will be providing live commentary. You can ask him questions in the chat about the launch, the website or whatever he had for dinner.

[Marcel de Bont]

Again cancelled due to high winds.

[KW2P]

Yes, well, science often requires patience.

I was wondering if the amateur radio community in Europe is paying attention to this experiment to see if it has any discernable effect on sporadic-E propagation in the hours and days after.

Es has long been a mystery. The best theory I've seen is a recent one that postulates that wind shear at 60 to 70 miles altitude gathers together clouds of microscopic metal particles left there as vapor from passing meteors. This theory seems to explain virtually of the behaviors we see with Es.

[Drax Spacex]

2 hours ago, KW2P said:

Yes, well, science often requires patience.

I was wondering if the amateur radio community in Europe is paying attention to this experiment to see if it has any discernable effect on sporadic-E propagation in the hours and days after.

Es has long been a mystery. The best theory I've seen is a recent one that postulates that wind shear at 60 to 70 miles altitude gathers together clouds of microscopic metal particles left there as vapor from passing meteors. This theory seems to explain virtually of the behaviors we see with Es.

We certainly have seen many fireball videos lately, some with faintly glowing cloudy remnants.  Or the remnants of this perhaps?  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford  Could be an interesting discussion for another topic - to brainstorm and review the literature on what causes Es.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Drax Spacex

[Jesterface23]

Taking a guess the wind speeds may need to be under 10 knots going up several kilometers. Good luck with the polar jet stream for a while.

[Drax Spacex]

I'm curious about how the sounding rocket will activate the ionosphere.  I read https://sscspace.com/sounding-rocket-bror/ but didn't find the answer other than it "will use techniques similar to that found in fireworks."  This sounds like thermionic emission as the basis.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Drax Spacex
thermionic emission?

[Marcel de Bont]

I think they will release Barium. The experiment is called Barium Release Optical and Radio Rocket (BROR) Experiment. I read about it last week but cant find the article anymore. But just Google Barium and BROR rocket and you get results like this https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021AGUFMSA25F2000S/abstract

[Marcel de Bont]

No launch today either. Way too cloudy. Tomorrow also seems unlikely. Tuesday and Wednesday look way better weather wise but still a bit windy on Tuesday. Wednesday seems like their best chance to launch BROR. Wednesday will also be the last possible day for the campaign to go through.

[hamateur 1953]

Fingers toes and whatever crossed over here in the colonies!!   Your mention of Barium got me thinking of a similar experiment in years past.  I will try to post a link if I can dig it up somewhere. Mike / Hagrid 

Edited March 21, 2023 by hamateur 1953
barium fluorescence

[KW2P]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:48 PM, Drax Spacex said:

We certainly have seen many fireball videos lately, some with faintly glowing cloudy remnants.  Or the remnants of this perhaps?  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford  Could be an interesting discussion for another topic - to brainstorm and review the literature on what causes Es.

I started a topic on Sporadic-E here:

https://community.spaceweatherlive.com/topic/2777-sporadic-e-radio-propagation/

 

[Marcel de Bont]

No launch today, but the weather is looking much better tomorrow, but the wind will be a factor tomorrow...

[Jesterface23]

Not seeing any launch happening unless they take a risk. They'd need to get lucky with a break in the jet stream even if the chance of launch goes through the end of the month.

[hamateur 1953]

Refresh us on the meteorological speeds ( jet stream) ifya would please my good  man. Not sure I even knew them at one time even Ok. looked it up.  275 mph!  impressive.  Even my buick would be unable to keep up with that. To say nothing of a rocket with a payload!!  

Edited March 20, 2023 by hamateur 1953

[Jesterface23]

10 minutes ago, hamateur 1953 said:

Refresh us on the meteorological speeds ( jet stream) ifya would please my good  man. Not sure I even knew them at one time even

It is pretty much a constantly changing river of strong winds in the atmosphere. There are lower level jet streams to upper level jet streams in excess of 15km above sea level. They can reaching wind speeds in excess of 150kts at times (possibly rarer in some areas more than others), so you don't want to fly something that needs to go up through there.

[hamateur 1953]

Yup. indeed!  and rapidly varying!  Id heard that above 80,000 ft or so the winds typically only blow at 5 mph ( sr71 observations) For those history buffs the Japanese scientists discovered the jet stream and used it to their advantage against the united states with their very ingenious balloon bombs circa WW2. Not much information surviving on Wiki unfortunately.   off topic. im outta here. tnx J 

Edited March 21, 2023 by hamateur 1953

[Marcel de Bont]

No launch today due to high winds. Last chance tomorrow! Weather forecasts are actually looking good for tomorrow (wind might be an issue but we will see) so if there is a chance that they will launch the BROR rocket tomorrow we will be streaming it live on YouTube.

[Marcel de Bont]

Bit more clouds today than expected and the wind remains problematic so a 50/50 chance the launch will go ahead tonight... but shouldn't they cancel it in the last minute we will go live at 19:00 local time (18:00 UTC) with a planned launch time of 19:19 local time.

Edit: the launch was cancelled 20 minutes before the scheduled launch time.