NEW DELHI: Nasa has successfully launched the first of two climate satellites into orbit, designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles. The satellite, part of the PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission, was carried by Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, at 7:41 pm NZST (3:41 am EDT) on Saturday.
The PREFIRE mission consists of two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from the coldest and most remote regions on the planet.
Karen St Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington following the launch of the satellites said that the data collected by the mission will help researchers in predicting how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world.
The second PREFIRE CubeSat will be launched on a separate Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in the coming days. After a 30-day checkout period to ensure both CubeSats are functioning properly, the mission is expected to operate for 10 months.
The PREFIRE mission focuses on Earth’s energy budget, which is the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat given off by the planet. The difference between the two determines the planet’s temperature and climate. The Arctic and Antarctica emit a significant amount of heat as far-infrared radiation, which is currently not measured in detail.
The CubeSats carry thermal infrared spectrometers, which use specially shaped mirrors and sensors to measure infrared wavelengths. Miniaturizing these instruments to fit on CubeSats required downsizing some parts while scaling up others.
“Our planet is changing quickly, and in places like the Arctic, in ways that people have never experienced before. NASA’s PREFIRE will give us new measurements of the far-infrared wavelengths being emitted from Earth’s poles, which we can use to improve climate and weather models and help people around the world deal with the consequences of climate change,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, PREFIRE’s principal investigator from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The PREFIRE mission was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the spectrometers. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the data collected by the instruments. The launch services provider is Rocket Lab USA Inc of Long Beach, California.
The PREFIRE mission consists of two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from the coldest and most remote regions on the planet.
Karen St Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington following the launch of the satellites said that the data collected by the mission will help researchers in predicting how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world.
The second PREFIRE CubeSat will be launched on a separate Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in the coming days. After a 30-day checkout period to ensure both CubeSats are functioning properly, the mission is expected to operate for 10 months.
The PREFIRE mission focuses on Earth’s energy budget, which is the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat given off by the planet. The difference between the two determines the planet’s temperature and climate. The Arctic and Antarctica emit a significant amount of heat as far-infrared radiation, which is currently not measured in detail.
The CubeSats carry thermal infrared spectrometers, which use specially shaped mirrors and sensors to measure infrared wavelengths. Miniaturizing these instruments to fit on CubeSats required downsizing some parts while scaling up others.
“Our planet is changing quickly, and in places like the Arctic, in ways that people have never experienced before. NASA’s PREFIRE will give us new measurements of the far-infrared wavelengths being emitted from Earth’s poles, which we can use to improve climate and weather models and help people around the world deal with the consequences of climate change,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, PREFIRE’s principal investigator from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The PREFIRE mission was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the spectrometers. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the data collected by the instruments. The launch services provider is Rocket Lab USA Inc of Long Beach, California.