NASA creates artificial clouds in experiment to study changes in Earth’s atmosphere

The study would help understand the impact of the growing number of satellites and rockets in space.

NASA researchers created artificial clouds by launching a rocket into the upper atmosphere in an attempt to study the changes to which it is subjected, the entity announced on its website on Tuesday.

The clouds they created are concretely polar mesospheric clouds, which consist of swarms of ice crystals in the upper layers of the atmosphere that capture sunlight in unusual ways.

The experiment was performed by launching the Super Soaker rocket, which incorporated a 220 liter water tank, from a research field in the city of Fairbanks, Alaska. When the rocket reached an altitude of about 85 kilometers, the tank exploded, causing the liquid to be released. Eighteen seconds later, a laser radar on the ground detected a weak echo indicating the presence of a polar mesospheric cloud, the one generated by the operation.

Based on the observations, the scientists created a model that simulates the development process of these clouds. The results suggest that the introduction of water led to a significant drop in temperature in this part of the atmosphere.

However, the presence of more water vapor does not mean that the temperature drops without limits, since the clouds act like a thermostat. When water freezes, the vapor turns into ice crystals. When ice crystals are heated, they sublimate to vapor and the cycle repeats.

The study linked the results of the experiment to the current reality of space traffic, marked by the increase in the number of satellites and rockets whose launch generates water vapor. In this context, monitoring the formation of polar mesospheric clouds and observing changes in water levels would be essential to understand the impact that human activities they have on cosmic space.