The team behind the experiment, led by Clemson University physicist Miguel Larsen, allowed the tracers to float into the upper layers of our atmosphere, where they followed the movements, showing researchers some previously unknown characteristics of the upper jet stream.  The upper jet stream are very high altitude winds, zipping along the thinnest layers of the atmosphere at more than 300 miles per hour, generating electrical currents that surround our planet.

“This is an important region of the atmosphere because it affects so many things that occur in space,” Larsen says.

The experiment, formally known as the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment will let researchers better understand and model electrical activity around the planet, which can interfere with signals from spacecraft and satellites.