Last Friday, Sept. 2nd, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a research balloon from the slopes of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. En route to measure radiation at the edge of space, the balloon's payload snapped this spherical image of the Atlantic Coast of Maine.
https://theta360.com/s/sEOSjdZ8UR4BZ4k0Lnri8z1xQ
The balloon popped at an altitude of 118,000 feet, about 10 minutes after it took this picture. Parachuting back to Earth, the payload landed in a forest of tall trees not far from Tripp Pond, Maine, where a combined team of students from Southern Maine Community College and Earth to Sky Calculus recovered it for analysis.
This wasn't the only space weather balloon launched on Sept. 2nd. Earth to Sky students in California launched a second balloon at the same time. The transcontinental flight was part of an ongoing experiment to explore geographical variations in atmospheric radiation. Results? Here they are:
These profiles show the dose rate of secondary cosmic rays as a function of altitude over central California and southern Maine. Clearly, the atmosphere of Maine is more "radioactive." The reason can be found in the labels. The magnetic latitude in Maine (+54o) is higher than the magnetic latitude in California (+44o). In other words, Maine is closer to Earth's magnetic north pole where cosmic rays are more abundant.
These results are of interest to air travelers, atmospheric scientists, and operators of high-altitude drones, among others. In a few days we'll release an even bigger data set showing results from Chile, California, Oregon and Washington. Stay tuned.
Source - www.spaceweather.com
https://theta360.com/s/sEOSjdZ8UR4BZ4k0Lnri8z1xQ
The balloon popped at an altitude of 118,000 feet, about 10 minutes after it took this picture. Parachuting back to Earth, the payload landed in a forest of tall trees not far from Tripp Pond, Maine, where a combined team of students from Southern Maine Community College and Earth to Sky Calculus recovered it for analysis.
This wasn't the only space weather balloon launched on Sept. 2nd. Earth to Sky students in California launched a second balloon at the same time. The transcontinental flight was part of an ongoing experiment to explore geographical variations in atmospheric radiation. Results? Here they are:
These profiles show the dose rate of secondary cosmic rays as a function of altitude over central California and southern Maine. Clearly, the atmosphere of Maine is more "radioactive." The reason can be found in the labels. The magnetic latitude in Maine (+54o) is higher than the magnetic latitude in California (+44o). In other words, Maine is closer to Earth's magnetic north pole where cosmic rays are more abundant.
These results are of interest to air travelers, atmospheric scientists, and operators of high-altitude drones, among others. In a few days we'll release an even bigger data set showing results from Chile, California, Oregon and Washington. Stay tuned.
Source - www.spaceweather.com
