NASA's VortEx rocket mission to explore huge hurricane-like swirls in space

NASA is preparing for the launch of its VortEx mission, hoping that it would finally answer questions about how weather patterns can impact Earth. A rocket team from the space agency is on the lookout for big swirls in the upper atmosphere that resemble hurricanes. The swirls, also known as vortices, might be contributing to the weather patterns that influence the globe.

On the small scale, winds are a key factor that architects consider while planning construction of buildings, as they are sources of buoyancy waves, a common phenomenon that drives changes to Earth’s interface to space. “They could come from approaching storm fronts, or winds hitting the mountains and being sent upwards,” said Gerald Lehmacher, the top investigator of the Vorticity experiment. 

The mission is set to commence on March 17 from Norway's Andøya Space Center, according to the official website of NASA.The mission aims to study buoyancy waves, which are common but their impact in the upper atmosphere is something that still remains a mystery.

“In the broadest sense, this experiment is about learning about the fate of buoyancy waves at the edge of space,” Lehmacher said. 

NASA to conduct four rocket launches 

The mission is focusing on one particular aspect: vortices. Computer models have suggested that the movement of buoyancy waves through layers of the atmosphere can create swirls of air, which resemble hurricanes. “They could turn into whirls – this could be happening everywhere in the atmosphere, but we simply don’t have the measurements to know,” Lehmacher explained. 

NASA's mission, set to launch today, will comprise four rockets that will shoot into space in pairs of two. Each pair will have a high-flyer and a low-flyer that will be launched a few minutes apart. While the former will measure winds, the latter will be responsible for calculating air density, a key aspect that contributes to how the vortices are created. Within minutes, the rockets will obtain measurements and head back to Earth, falling into the Norwegian Sea.