11–20 of 92 posts
I wonder why a SpaceX Falcon-9 was singled out. Wouldn't any sufficiently large rocket have the same effect? And if so, wouldn't the Falcon heavy cause an even more dramatic effect?
"This unique nearly vertical trajectory is different from the usual satellite launches that the rockets fly over horizontal trajectory "
Can this cause any other issues other than GPS errors? Lines like It is followed by ionospheric hole (plasma depletions) due to rapid chemical reactions of rocket exhaust plumes and ionospheric plasma. sound concerning but that's most likely because I only understand half the words, and have even less of an understanding when they're strung together in that manner!
A ~900km wide patch of the ion blanket around the earth became thinner. Probably in the density sense, not the size sense: there was less plasma there than normal. (The abstract measures this in terms of how many electrons they counted in that area.)
due to rapid chemical reactions of rocket exhaust plumes and ionospheric plasma.
They think the thin patch was caused because the Falcon's exhaust reacted with the ion blanket. I'm not sure how.
I wonder why a SpaceX Falcon-9 was singled out. Wouldn't any sufficiently large rocket have the same effect? And if so, wouldn't the Falcon heavy cause an even more dramatic effect?
Read the article before asking questions. "This unique nearly vertical trajectory is different from the usual satellite launches that the rockets fly over horizontal trajectory "
I wonder why a SpaceX Falcon-9 was singled out. Wouldn't any sufficiently large rocket have the same effect? And if so, wouldn't the Falcon heavy cause an even more dramatic effect?
Read the article before asking questions. "This unique nearly vertical trajectory is different from the usual satellite launches that the rockets fly over horizontal trajectory "
The worst such event on record caused errors of ~1 meter. I didn't think civilian GPS was that precise anyway, and that's why various schemes are used in conjunction with GPS for greater accuracy? Presumably, military GPS has similar schemes to deal with this sort of event?
Even plainer language: Rocket exhaust can have impact with atmosphere, we need to study it more on short and long term effects.
This is ELI5 territory, which is cool because we probably need one of these as well.