The rocket was sent up just after sunset to allow for the colorful spectacle. The element barium was released at an altitude of 10-20 miles, making the clouds luminescent in the sunshine that still remained at the high altitude.
"This was probably the most beautiful rocket launch I've seen at Esrange," krister Sjölander of the space company Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) said in a press release.
"Key results"
The launch took place a day after the actual end date of the venture, which had previously had to be canceled due to bad weather conditions.
The purpose of studying the conditions in the ionosphere is to be able to provide better forecasts of the sun's activity and how it affects infrastructure on Earth and satellites.
"We've had important results. I hope that an analysis of the information will give us the opportunity to take another step to understand such an amazing phenomenon as the Northern Lights", says IRF researcher Tima Sergienko, head of the experiment.
On reindeer pastures
The Esrange space base is located on the reindeer pastures of the Sami village of Talma. The space project has been lined with criticism from the Sami village over the years as the increased number of launches limits reindeer husbandry.