UPDATE for February 18th, 2012

Here's an update from MICA PI Steve Powell.

We were greeted by beautifully clear skies at Poker and both down range sites, Venetie and Ft Yukon, at the opening of the window, along with some of the quietest geomagnetic conditions of the rocket campaign. The GOES magnetometer appeared to be in calibration mode drawing smooth sine waves rather than the more jagged fluctuations that are usually associated with auroral substorms. Nonetheless, our friend the little red arc of the north appeared on the extreme northern horizon, well north of Ft Yukon and gradually slid south. When it was just north of our rocket trajectory it showed signs of intensification, so we dropped the count to 2 minutes. Unfortunately the intensification that occurred was accompanied by movement northward. We watched a good auroral event occur near the north coast of Alaska, which unfortunately did not migrate south by the time our launch window closed at 2 am.

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