"NASA's Sounding Rockets to Probe Moon's Shadow During Solar Eclipse"

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will study disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun, aiming to improve models predicting potential disturbances to communications. The rockets will measure charged and neutral particle density, electric and magnetic fields, and will be complemented by ground-based radars and high-altitude balloons to refine existing models of ionospheric dynamics.