BLACKSBURG, Va., July 30 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:
When the Polar Night Nitric Oxide (PolarNOx) experiment sounding rocket blasted off from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska earlier this year, traveling at more than 2,400 mph into the upper atmosphere, it carried equipment designed at Virginia Tech to measure nitric oxide high above the Arctic.
Led by Scott Bailey, professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and supported by a grant from NASA, the PolarNOx experiment seeks to understand how nitric oxide generated by the Northern Lights accumulates in the upper atmosphere during the the months of continuous winter darkness.
The lack of sunlig...