NASA launched the first of two research satellites to measure how much heat is lost to space from the Arctic and Antarctica, CNN informed.
The satellite departed Saturday at 7:42 pm local time aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex in Mahia, New Zealand. The company confirmed the successful deployment of the satellite at 8:35 pm local time.
The climate mission, Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE), aims to improve scientists’ understanding of how water vapour, clouds and other elements of Earth’s atmosphere trap heat and keep it from radiating into space.
NASA said the data will inform climate models and hopefully lead to more accurate predictions of how the climate crisis will affect sea levels, weather, snow and ice cover.
They reasoned that the Earth absorbs a lot of the Sun’s energy in tropical regions. Weather and ocean currents move this heat energy to the poles, where the heat is radiated upward into space. Most of this heat is at far-infrared wavelengths and has never before been measured systematically.
PREFIRE consists of two CubeSats equipped with specialised miniature heat sensors. The launch date for the second satellite will be announced shortly after the launch of the first satellite, according to NASA.
Both satellites will be in asynchronous circumpolar orbits. Thus, they will be able to collect data on phenomena that occur in short time intervals and require frequent measurements.
