East coasters-- keep your eyes to the sky tonight.

[MerryBlooms]

A NASA Experiment Is Going to Light Up the Sky With Beautifully Colored Clouds Tonight

If you’re on the east coast tonight, keep an eye on the sky between 7pm and 9pm: NASA is launching a test of some new tech that will include releasing colorful vapor tracers 130 miles above the Earth. It sounds like it’s going to be beautiful.

The vapors will be ejected from a sounding rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA explains that it has actually been injecting various vapor tracers into the atmosphere since the 1950s—these trails help scientists understand “the naturally occurring flows of ionized and neutral particles” in the upper atmosphere by injecting color tracers and tracking the flow across the sky.

Tonight, NASA says it’s ejecting four different payloads of a mix of barium and strontium, creating “a cloud with a mixture of blue-green and red color.” Here’s an example of a barium release provided by NASA; on the upper left you can see the barium’s “ionized component, which has become elongated along the Earth’s magnetic field lines.”

http://gizmodo.com/a-nasa-experiment-is-going-to-light-up-the-sky-with-bea-1735168250

[Blue_Tires]

1. Excellent...Hope I see something good

[MerryBlooms]

9. I hope so too. Good luck!

[Blue_Tires]

22. I'm in Norfolk

and I only saw the first "puff" (bright green)...Didn't see anything else...

[TexasProgresive]

2. It always make me smile when Wallops is in the news.

My most favorite all time job was at Wallops Station.

[MerryBlooms]

10. Must have been fascinating.

[TexasProgresive]

19. It was such a hoot!

Because the work wasn't like at the Cape we got to see all of it and know everyone. I wasn't there for the really dangerous stuff the shot off from the island using exotic fuels like red fuming nitric acid and I don't know what else. They told me a couple of stories about near disasters; one they launched a rocket on the island, the control room was on the mainland. The rocket locked on to the telemetry signals and was headed straight for the control room. They hit the destruct button with the rocket in view. I'm not sure if the windows got blown out, but they were all shaken up.

The safety officer created some extremely realistic fire drills with thermite, dynamite and diesel fuel to simulate plane and rocket crashes. The fire crews never knew if it was real or a Francis thing.

[marions ghost]

21. I know it well

relatives around there on the seaside. The jokes about what they're doing at Wallops abound...

[Qutzupalotl]

3. See? Chemtrails!

[MerryBlooms]

11. hee hee

[cwydro]

4. Thanks for posting.

[appalachiablue]

6. SKY SHOW starts at 7 PM ET. More info. and website that will *livestream the event tonight,

starting at 6 PM ET and throughout the launch, @Space.com. Should be interesting with exotic colors.

?1444155273

*Scroll down in the link to see where best to watch the sky from your location,

Space.com, NASA Rocket Launch Glowing Clouds, & LIVESTREAM Tonight
http://www.space.com/30760-nasa-rocket-launch-glowing-clouds.html

[cwydro]

7. Thanks!

[appalachiablue]

8. For sure. The live webcast starts at 6 PM ET and goes throughout the launch.

[MerryBlooms]

13. Thanks so much for taking the time to post the additional link and pic!

[appalachiablue]

15. You bet! Yrs. ago lived not far from Wallops Island, Va. & an uncle worked at NASA there.

[MerryBlooms]

16. Awesome.

[MerryBlooms]

12. y/w

[ohheckyeah]

5. Thanks for sharing.

Hope I can see it.

[MerryBlooms]

14. Good luck!

[Atman]

17. Crystal clear night here in CT...

The web site claimed we'd be able to see it in the southern sky at about 7:15. I waited. Didn't see a darned thing.

[MerryBlooms]

18. Dang. (implied frownie face) n/t

[Decoy of Fenris]

20. Nothing here, either. :( Thanks for the heads up, though. n/t