This, basically.
While we await the Aurora Borealis (fingers crossed), NASA is giving New Yorkers another reason to look up at the sky. Sometime between March 14th and April 4th (depending on weather), they'll be launching rockets into the edge of space for a jet stream study they say will "light up the night sky." NASA explains:
High in the sky, 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface, winds rush through a little understood region of Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 200 to 300 miles per hour. Lower than a typical satellite's orbit, higher than where most planes fly, this upper atmosphere jet stream makes a perfect target for a particular kind of scientific experiment: the sounding rocket. Some 35 to 40 feet long, sounding rockets shoot up into the sky for short journeys of eight to ten minutes, allowing scientists to probe difficult-to-reach layers of the atmosphere.
The five rockets will be launched on a clear night within a period of minutes—"the trimethyl aluminum will then be released in space out over the Atlantic Ocean at altitudes from 50 to 90 miles. The cloud tracers will last for up to 20 minutes and will be visible along the east coast." So get your cameras ready to capture those “glowing exhaust trails." [via Animal]
