NASA is launching rockets at clouds that interfere with radio signals.

NASA is launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to study mysterious high-altitude cloud structures that can disrupt critical communications systems .

The mission, dubbed Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics (SEED) , began its three-week launch window from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on June 13.

The atmospheric features SEED is studying are known as Sporadic-E layers, and they pose numerous challenges to radio communications . When they are present, air traffic controllers and marine radio users can pick up signals from unusually distant regions, mistaking them for nearby sources.

Military operators using radar to see beyond the horizon may detect false targets—known as "ghosts"—or receive distorted and difficult-to-decipher signals. Sporadic-E layers are constantly forming, moving, and dissipating, so these disruptions can be difficult to anticipate.

Sporadic-E layers form in the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere that extends between 60 and 1,000 kilometers above sea level. The ionosphere, home to the International Space Station and most Earth-orbiting satellites, is also where we observe the greatest impacts of space weather. Driven primarily by the Sun, space weather causes countless problems in our communications with satellites and between ground-based systems. A better understanding of the ionosphere is key to the proper functioning of critical infrastructure.

The ionosphere gets its name from the charged particles, or ions, that reside within it. Some of these ions come from meteorites, which burn up in the atmosphere and leave traces of ionized iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium suspended in the sky . These "heavy metals" are more massive than the typical residents of the ionosphere and tend to descend to lower altitudes, below 140 kilometers (90 miles). Occasionally, they clump together to create dense clumps known as Sporadic-E layers.

" These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to the naked eye and can only be detected by radar. On radar charts, some layers appear as scattered, puffy clouds, while others are spread out, similar to an overcast sky, which we call the Sporadic-E wraparound layer," explained Aroh Barjatya, SEED principal investigator and professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in a statement.

Beginning on the evening of June 13, Barjatya and his team will monitor ALTAIR (Long Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar (ARPA), a powerful ground-based radar system at the launch site, for signs of developing SporadicS-E layers . When conditions are right, Barjatya will give the launch command. A few minutes later, the rocket will be in flight.

During ascent, the rocket will release colored vapor tracers. Ground-based cameras will track the tracers to measure wind patterns in three dimensions. Once inside the Sporadic-E layer, the rocket will deploy four subpayloads: miniature detectors that will measure particle density and magnetic field strength at multiple locations.