Rockets certainly have a substantial impact if you ever see a launch in person. The noise, shock waves, and even heat can be awe-inspiring. What is less obvious are the impacts a launch has on our upper atmosphere, or “anthropogenic space weather” as the fancy scientists call it. A pre-print from a recent study on Artemis II’s impact on our atmosphere shows a shockingly wide range of effects.

As a whole, the impact on Artemis comes in waves. Each stage of the Space Launch System performs burns in different parts of the atmosphere, creating increasing ripples as the rocket moves through various layers. The first stage is the largest in terms of thrust, but has limited impact on the ionosphere because of how low it occurred. The 2nd and 3rd stages’ impact, however, was so large that it could’ve sustainably disrupted GPS signals at the time. Waves even traveled through the atmosphere across the entirety of North America in the form of gravity waves. These ionosphere “holes” might not be a major problem now, but it’s something to think about as we ramp up rocket production.

While this research relied on thousands of sensors across the globe, that doesn’t mean you need the same budget to analyze the state of the ionosphere at home.