October Sky

Inspired by a movie that was on tv yesterday afternnoon, called October sky, I have been looking on the internet at science/maths stuff. October Sky is about a young boy called Homer, who lives in Coalwood, a place where everyone works at the coal mine and the kids expect to grow up to work in the mine. Then Sputnik flyes over-the first orbiting satalite-and Homer is motivated to build rockets. A true story, he now works for NASA.
I have learnt that in the atmosphere there are parts of 'ionisation' that influence radio waves called sporadic E. I think this is what my grandfather was researching. The sun causes free electrons which reflect the radio waves down if at the right frequency. Sciencists can find and measure the (concentrated) free electrons, which gather together they call them clouds.