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ROPA - Update - February 9, 2007

We had some moderate auroral activity today, including a dramatic come-out-of-nowhere display at Toolik Lake and Kaktovic (just to prove to us that we can't always predict when good aurora is about to happen), but were socked in for clouds at Poker all night long. We are required to have 60% clear skies at the launch site by FAA rules. Fortunately the severe winds of the past few days (which have been strong enough to blow some of the styrofoam panels off the payload boxes) have died down. The auroral activity is weakening somewhat but is still much more active than last month.

Here are some pictures of the Denali area (about a 3 hour drive from here) taken this past weekend by our power systems engineer, Tom Malaby.