I'm at Alomar Observatory in northern Norway as part of the AZURE mission (Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment). Two rockets were launched from Andøya Space Center, and my part was to help with optical observations from the nearby highpoint here at Alomar Observatory. I've been here a week waiting for both the weather and the science conditions to cooperate for the launch, but the mission has been waiting for a launch much longer than that - they tried to launch last year but after waiting for two weeks they never found the right conditions, and I think the same might have happened the year before (2017). So this launch was a long time coming.

The AZURE mission used sounding rockets to release these glowing tracer clouds in the upper atmosphere, from around 100km to up to 250km altitude. Observers at the ground sites (like me) then use optical instruments - which are mostly off-the-shelf dSLR cameras - to track the way the clouds move over the next ~30 minutes. This allows investigators to learn about the winds and magnetic fields at these altitudes.

As a bonus, it also looks spectacular.

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