NASA is preparing to launch a spacecraft to study the highest clouds in the planet's atmosphere, and scientists say their formation -- a relatively recent phenomenon -- might be connected to global warming.
Dubbed AIM for Aeronomy of Ice In the Mesosphere, the spacecraft is to be launched April 25 aboard a Pegasus rocket that is being readied for flight at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. Launch time that day: about 4:27 p.m. EDT.
The AIM spacecraft is the first designed specifically to study the high-altitude clouds, which form about 50 miles above the polar regions of the planet.
"We are exploring clouds that literally are at the very edge of space," said James Russell, the principal investigator from Hampton University in Virginia. The mission is the first to be directed by a historically black college.
Russell said scientists think that the formation of the clouds, first noted in the late 19th after the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, might be related to the increased amount of carbon dioxide that has built up in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.
Three scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft will gather and return data that should prove or disprove that hypothesis, Russell said.
A fact sheet on the mission is here: AIMfacts.pdf
A multimedia gallery that includes some spectacular animations is here: AIM IMAGES
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA photo of engineers and technicians preparing the AIM spacecraft for launch later this month. The spacecraft is to be lofted by an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket.
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