Beware the northern lights

Bid to plot safe route through the skies.

The northern lights, one of nature’s most spectacular phenomena, can be the cause of navigational distress for airplanes causing broken radio contact.
 
Now, an academic from the University of Oslo is preparing to launch a rocket to get to the bottom of the issue and set up a warning process for when contact is likely to be lost.
 
Professor Jøran, from the Institute of Physics, aims to set off a rocket from New Aalesund on the Svalbard archipelago - situated midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole - to get to grips with some of the physics surrounding the phenomenon.
 
Due to the curvature of the Earth, planes flying polar routes use high frequency radio which is sent via the ionosphere (which is between 80 and 500 kilometres above land). These are comprised of a layer of gas with electronic particles. When the northern lights are active there is a disturbance in the electronic clouds which means that the signals are cut off.
 
The professor is aiming to use registrations from the rocket to understand the nature of the disturbances more clearly. “This knowledge is essential for developing warning systems that can deal with these problems,” he explained. 

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