NASA hurls revolutionary climate change satellite
Date
5/26/2024 9:20:04 AM
(MENAFN) On Saturday, a diminutive NASA satellite embarked on a groundbreaking mission from New Zealand, aiming to revolutionize climate change prediction by measuring heat escaping from Earth's poles for the first time.
"This new information -- and we've never had it before -- will improve our ability to model what's happening in the poles, what's happening in climate," remarked NASA's earth sciences research director, Karen St. Germain, during a recent news conference.
The satellite, roughly the size of a shoebox, was launched into orbit by an Electron rocket, manufactured by Rocket Lab, from Mahia in northern New Zealand. This mission, dubbed PREFIRE, represents a significant step forward in climate science.
Rocket Lab also plans to launch a similar satellite of its own, contributing to PREFIRE's objective of capturing infrared measurements above the Arctic and Antarctic regions. These measurements will provide invaluable data on the heat emitted by the poles directly into space.
"This is critical because it actually helps to balance the excess heat that's received in the tropical regions and really regulate the earth's temperature," explained Tristan L'Ecuyer, a mission researcher affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "And the process of getting the heat from the tropical regions to the polar regions is actually what drives all of our weather around the planet," he added.
Through the PREFIRE mission, NASA aims to gain deeper insights into how various factors such as clouds, humidity, and ice melting contribute to heat loss from the poles. Until now, climate change scientists relied on theoretical models to estimate heat loss, lacking real observational data. With PREFIRE, these models will be enriched with empirical evidence, enhancing our understanding of the Earth's climate dynamics.
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