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It was down to the wire, but after numerous weather delays NASA managed to launch five sub-orbital sounding rockets Tuesday morning just before 5 am ET from their Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) mission will help unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the inner clockwork of the jet stream located in the uppermost portion of the atmosphere, near the edge of space.
To help track these high altitude winds, as each unmanned rockets reached the 60 mile altitude mark, they released a chemical tracer which formed wispy, white clouds that allowed researchers to visualize the winds.
Meanwhile early bird skywatchers across much of the U.S. northeast coastline were treated to an eerie sky show too, with many reporting from Massachusetts to North Carolina of seeing the luminous white vapor trails.
Veteran astrophotographer Jeff Berkes captured the awesome image above, of these man-made high altitude streaks from just outside of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, about 180 miles north of the launch site.
“The chemical tracers could be seen for hundreds of miles,” said Berkes.
