[bars] SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch scheduled for 6:35 PM tonight!

[Jon Turner]

Hi BARS members,

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch is scheduled for 6:35 PM tonight!  The launch will be broadcast live online via  <https://www.youtube.com/user/spacexchannel/> SpaceX’s YouTube channel.

 

In August 2017, a SpaceX Falcon 9 high altitude rocket, launched from Vandenberg, generated a gigantic circular Shock Acoustic Wave (SAW) in the ionosphere covering an area four times greater than California. The rocket was vertically boosting a lightweight satellite payload to a mission altitude of about 450 miles (720 km) above the earth. That altitude is more than most Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, and a  <https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017SW001738> team of scientists tracked the rocket's effects as it poked a hole in the ionosphere about 5 minutes after launch. 

High altitude rocket launches can temporarily affect ionospheric propagation. They are called anthropogenic space weather events. Such changes in the ionosphere could affect HF propagation reflection or perturb GPS positioning accuracy. 

 <https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017SW001738> Scientists studying the event recorded SAWs emanating outward for 20 minutes, at about 1500 Miles Per Hour (2400 kph) . It was the largest rocket‐induced circular SAW on record, about 900 miles (1500 km) in diameter. The rocket's exhaust plume also created a large scale ionospheric plasma hole, which eventually closed back up.  <https://eos.org/research-spotlights/understanding-the-effects-of-anthropogenic-space-weather> Read more about it on Earth & Space Science News.

 

From:

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/rocket-launch-affected-ionosphere-propagation.609587/

 

I missed the last launch and always wondered if I could detect any changes in propagation due to the launch.  Tonight we’ll have a chance to see.  This will be only the second flight for the world’s most powerful rocket now in operation, so if any rocket can impact propagation, this one can.

 

Might be an interesting topic for the Net tonight?

73,

Jon Turner

AC1EV

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