Daily Currnet Affairs 22.09.2018: The Balloon Mission of Nasa

The Balloon Mission of NASA

Overview: Scientists have begun to analyse the photos captured by the NASA balloon mission.

• The mission recently captured the images of noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). These images may help scientists better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes and other planetary atmospheres. 

Know the Mission:

NASA’s polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) Turbo mission launched a giant balloon on July 8 to study PMCs at a height of 50 miles above the surface. For five days, the balloon floated through the stratosphere from its launch at Esrange, Sweden, across the Arctic to Western Nunavut, Canada. During its flight, cameras on board the balloon captured six million high-resolution images filling up 120 terabytes of data storage — most of which included a variety of PMC displays, revealing the processes leading to turbulence. 

Goals of the mission:

• The mission aimed at studying atmospheric motions, such as airflow over mountains or the motions caused by thunderstorms, which can cause disturbances in the atmosphere which are generated through something called gravity waves.
• Besides, with this mission, scientists want to understand the processes of matter in near-Earth space, including how matter there interacts with Earth’s atmosphere and weather.