Excursion to Andøya Rocket Range

            Every class at UNIS includes an excursion.  For the excursion for my course in the Middle Polar Atmosphere, we traveled to Andøya Rocket Range near Andenes for a week in late October.  This was exciting because we got to see the sun again which had been gone for over a week on Svalbard.  Andenes is also in Lofoften, one of the most beautiful areas in Norway where mountains meet the sea.  Our lodgings were extremely nice as we were housed in cottages near the shore, usually rented out to vacationers in the summer. 

            Our activities on the excursion were varied.  We had the relatively mundane offering of lectures.  This time the lectures focused on stratospheric warmings and the quasi-biannual oscillation.  Additionally we were given a tour of the rocket range and got to see a rocket launch.  The launch was testing a new heat shield that protected a small capsule with sharp angles.  Currently heat shields on both the Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz space crafts are around smooth surfaces.  The ability to effectively protect sharp angled surfaces gives more flexibility to engineers when designing spacecraft.  This capsule was tested while we were at the rocket range and we could view the live telemetry and see the successful launch from the liftoff to splashdown.  We also toured a LIDAR facility and got to see a variety of large lasers used for measuring atmospheric conditions in the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere.  One precaution that they must take includes not shooting the lasers when airplanes are flying overhead for fear of the reflection from the plane blinding people on the ground.  Those are some powerful lasers!  We also saw the launch of the first Norwegian satellite live from Russia.  The satellite is designed to track tagged reindeer.  Finally we worked extensively with an infra-red handheld camera and took a survey of the rocket range to determine where there were thermal leaks that could be corrected to increase efficiency of heating buildings.  We turned in a report to the rocket range but unfortunately they neglected to give us a commission. 

            Overall this was an exciting trip that showed many aspects of research in the middle and upper atmosphere.  Some pictures are included below. 

Click on the photo for a larger version. 

A rocket launch!!

One big laser for a LIDAR facility. 

Image from the infrared camera.