These vortices, or eddies, may be key to upper atmosphere weather patterns that affect the entire world. The Vorticity Experiment, or VortEx mission, is set to launch from the Andoy Space Center in Andenes, Norway, on March 17, 2023. If you’ve ever stood on the top of a mountain or tall building, you’ve probably noticed how stormy it is up there. High-altitude winds affect architects’ plans and pilots’ routes, but their impact on our planet goes far beyond the ordinary human world. These winds are sources of buoyancy waves: giant energy pulses that cause changes in Earth’s interface with space.

Buoyancy waves are a common phenomenon on Earth. “They can be caused by approaching storm fronts or by wind hitting mountains,” said Gerald Lemacher, professor of physics at Clemson University in South Carolina and principal investigator for the Vorticity Experiment, or VortEx mission. Buoyancy waves occur when a wind or disturbance suddenly pushes denser air into an area of ​​lower pressure, creating oscillations as the atmosphere tries to return to equilibrium. These ripples give rise to waves propagating from the disturbance, like ripples in a pool.

Although buoyancy waves are a common phenomenon, their impact higher in the atmosphere is still poorly understood.

“In the broadest sense, this experiment aims to learn the fate of buoyancy waves at the edge of space,” Lemacher said. Said.

VortEx looks for one destiny: eddies. Computer models have shown that as buoyancy waves rise and pass through stable layers of our atmosphere, they can form giant air vortices.

“They can become eddies that can occur anywhere in the atmosphere, but there are no measurements we need to know,” Lemacher said. Said.

These eddies are believed to stretch for tens of miles from one end to the other, but they are too large to be measured by conventional methods. Lehmacher designed VortEx to overcome this limitation by measuring winds at very remote locations.

The mission will use four rockets, two of which will be launched at a time. Each pair is initiated at intervals of a few minutes. Peaking at an altitude of about 224 miles (360 kilometers), the aircraft will measure winds. Reaching an altitude of about 87 miles (140 kilometers), the low-flying instrument will measure the air density affecting eddy formation. Both rockets will measure for a few minutes before crashing into the Norwegian Sea.

To measure winds, the high-flying rocket will follow its movements from the ground, emitting bright clouds similar to those used in fireworks. Most experiments of this type will free the clouds from the rocket’s payload. But to pull the clouds apart to reveal larger-scale patterns, VortEx will simultaneously launch four boosters, each reaching a distance of about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the rocket, before releasing their own clouds. This will create a total of 16 clouds at different altitudes and distances in four different states in flight, helping to show large-scale models. The VortEX team will monitor the movement of these clouds, looking for any discernible signs of vortexes. The team will then repeat the experiment by launching a second pair of rockets in different weather conditions later that night or a few days later (depending on favorable conditions).

The VortEx team will also observe buoyancy waves from below. Operated by the Andøya Space Center in Andenes, Norway, the Alomar Observatory has the necessary ground-based radars and imaging systems to detect buoyancy waves occurring in real time. It is also home to the Scandinavian Mountains that run north to south across Norway. They are a regular source of buoyancy waves as the winds rush towards the mountains and rise into the sky.

If VortEx finds eddies, it will be an important step in understanding upper atmosphere weather, which affects GPS navigation and communication signals. Current computer weather models in the upper atmosphere still struggle to explain the effects of buoyancy waves. Eddy currents may be key, Lemacher says, because they’re more predictable than the buoyancy waves themselves.

“Vortex structures follow some universal rules that we can add to models to make them work at these scales,” Lemacher said. Said. “Instead of tracking individual buoyancy waves, you describe them with a eddy spectrum.”