American Notes

It took the combined resources of NASA and the U.S. Air Force to stage the $250 million fireworks display, but they promise it will be well worth the price. During the next two weeks, a team of scientists is planning a dazzling light show as part of a project to study the earth's magnetic fields. Fourteen canisters containing barium and lithium will be released from a satellite orbiting as high as 20,000 miles above the earth, creating a display of luminous red, green and purple clouds over much of North and South America, the Atlantic and Western Europe. Scientists hope that by monitoring the movement of the clouds, they will improve their ability to predict disturbances in the magnetic and electrical fields that surround the earth, and learn how the planet absorbs energy from the sun.