美国国家航天局（NASA）计划利用阳光悬浮微型“示踪剂”以绘制太空边缘地图

科学家正致力于解决“无知层”大气数据获取困难的问题。一项获得美国国家航天局先进概念研究所（NIAC）资助的新技术，计划通过部署可长期悬浮的微型传感器来监测这一区域，从而深入了解影响全球气候的长期模式。

The atmospheric is a dynamic place, and just how well we understand that dynamism depends on what part of the atmosphere it is. Low altitudes can be reached by traditional balloons, with full suites of sensing equipment. Higher reaches are the domain of satellites, with their zippy orbits allowing them to travel through the less dense regions. But there a section scientists call the “ignorosphere”, between 30-100 kilometers up that still plays a major role in global climate dynamics, but which are only able to reach with temporary sounding rockets that only collect data for a few minutes before falling back to Earth. But a new technology from Benjamin Schafer of Rarefied Technologies that received a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant hopes to solve that problem by inserting a fleet of sensors that can float in that area for months, while providing insight to these hard-to-capture long-term patterns that influence weather everywhere on the globe.