When rockets launch they do not go strait up into the air, They actually pitch down range to reduce the drag of gravity and are parallel with the Earth before releasing the Payload into orbit. However, there are times when rockets stay vertical during launch a little while longer. In august 2017, a SpaceX launch carrying Formosat-5 weighing 475kg and was bound for an orbit of around 720Km. Because The payload was lite, the rocket maintained a nearly vertical trajectory all the way the way through the ionosphere. The ionosphere ranges from 60km altitude to about 1000km above that. Because the rocket remand vertical circular shock waves were created as a result, which punched a temporary hole in the ionosphere.
Researchers believed that the Sun's radiation dominated the Earth's extremely tenuous atmosphere in the Ionosphere, but in the last decade research has shown that ground whether near earths surface do affect the conditions higher in the atmosphere. Researchers are also interested in the affects of supersonic rocket flights have as well, because disturbances in the ionosphere can cause errors in GPS navigation satellites; which can lead to GPS positioning being off by one meter.
The lead author of a new study, Charles C.H. Lin of national Cheng Kung University in Taiwan said; "A rocket is like a volcano eruption, Dumping energy into the middle and upper atmosphere". This Falcon 9 launch induced a hole that lasted about 3 hours; this is a magnitude similar to a Magnetic storm in space, however the rocket effect is regional and the magnetic storm in space is experienced globally.
Mankind is heading into a new era where rockets are being launched all the time do to drastically low cost launches, as well as much more larger rockets that will have 10 times the power, and will be capable of reaching other planets. Over time this will affect the middle and upper Atmosphere, and will probable be more worth paying attention to. Accidents relating to self driving cars that rely on GPS, can and will probably increase in frequency as well as severity, even the slightest inaccuracy can and will be very fatal.
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