Even in Björsbyn, Luleå, they took the opportunity to photograph the rocket launch.
At 19:23 on Thursday the research rocket, BROR, took off from the Esrange space base outside Kiruna. And the experiment created a light phenomenon in the evening sky at an altitude of 240 kilometers.
– This was among the most beautiful rocket launches I have experienced at Esrange. But more importantly, this research will pave the way for a deeper understanding of space weather, the aurora borealis phenomenon, and how it affects space infrastructure that is critical to our communities on Earth, says Krister Sjölander, director of payloads and flight systems at SSC, in a press release.
Researchers at the Institute for Space Physics (IRF) in Kiruna will then use the data to study conditions in the nearest regions of space, which is expected to provide important pieces of the puzzle to answer the questions about the aurora borealis.
The experiment will also enable better forecasts of the sun's activity and how solar winds of charged particles affect critical infrastructure on Earth and satellites.
- I am very happy that BROR worked perfectly. It's given us important results. I hope that the analysis of all the data will allow us to take another step towards understanding such an amazing phenomenon as the northern lights. I am eternally grateful to all participants in the experiment, says Tima Sergienko, head of the research experiment at IRF.