Daytona Beach, FL - An Embery-Riddle Aeronautical University associate professor, Dr. Aroh Barjayta, the 2019 Abas Sivjee Outstanding Researcher of the Year, is also a recipient of a $1.3 million NASA research award.
Barjayta already has a plan for that money. In summer 2021, he and his students will launch two identical rockets from Kwajalein (kwa-ja-lin) Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The rockets will bring back new clues to a region of the atmosphere where Northern lights dazzle, rockets soar and meteors fly.
This latest grant from NASA will help Barjayta and his team study complex mechanisms within the atmospheric region called the ionosphere. More specifically, he wants to learn more about two slices of the ionosphere called the E and F regions.
“What happens in these layers of the ionosphere can disturb over-the-horizon radio communications, GPS signals, short-wave radio signals and any other terrestrial broadcast,” explained Barjatya. “At times, this can significantly affect transportation and other business and systems operations.”
Recent research conducted by Barjayta has confirmed that, near the Earth's magnetic equator, wind shears can trigger sporadic high-density layers in the ionosphere's E region.
Barjayta runs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation LAB at Embry-Riddle and currently manages research grants worth about $2.7 million.
