On July 19, a Falcon 9 rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX punctured a temporary breach in the ionosphere, a critical layer of Earth’s atmosphere. The rocket lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. According to media sources, after the launch, witnesses in Flagstaff, Arizona, saw a bright red glow in the sky, indicating that the rocket had breached the ionosphere.
Boston University’s Space physicist Jeff Baumgardner reportedly told spaceweather.com, “This is a well-studied phenomenon when rockets are burning their engines 200 to 300 km [around 120 to 190 miles] above Earth’s surface.”
“I reviewed footage from the July 19th launch,” says Baumgardner. “It shows the second stage engine burning at 286 km [178 miles] near the F-region peak for that time of day. So, it is quite possible that an ionospheric ‘hole’ was made,” he added.
The ionosphere is a region 50 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface where space begins. During geomagnetic storms, it contains charged particles known as ions and contributes to the formation of auroras (also known as the Northern Lights or Southern Lights, mesmerizing natural light displays that dazzle the night skies around the Earth’s polar regions).
What effect do rockets have on the ionosphere?
The ionization of the ionosphere can be altered by fast-moving rockets and their exhaust plumes. When rockets emit water and carbon dioxide, local ionization can drop by up to 70%, especially in the F-layer of the ionosphere. The combination of oxygen ions and rocket exhaust produces the distinctive red color visible in the ionospheric hole, which is similar to red auroras.
Previous occurrences
Notably, a rocket launch in 2017 generated a 560-mile-wide hole that lasted several hours. These ionospheric interruptions have a minimal impact on GPS devices, affecting location accuracy marginally. In 2018, Charles C.H. Lin of Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University told Ars Technica, “Without considering the rocket launch effects, there are errors from the ionosphere, troposphere and other factors that will produce up to 20-meter [65-foot] errors or more.”
“Human are entering an era that rocket launches are becoming usual and frequent due to reduced cost by reusable rockets,” Lin said. “Meanwhile, humans are developing more powerful rockets to send cargo to other planets. These two factors will gradually affect the middle and upper atmosphere more, and that is worthwhile to pay some attention to.”