The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 a.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.
The agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment) mission consists of two shoebox-sized cubic satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat emitted by Earth into space from two of the coldest and most remote regions on the planet. Data from the PREFIRE mission will help researchers better predict how Earth’s ice, seas and weather will change in a warming world.
“NASA’s innovative PREFIRE mission will fill a gap in our understanding of the Earth system—giving our scientists a detailed picture of how Earth’s polar regions affect how much energy our planet absorbs and releases,” said Karen St. Germain, NASA Administrator. Earth Sciences Division in Washington. “This will improve predictions of sea ice loss, ice sheet melting and sea level rise, creating a better understanding of how our planet’s system will change in the coming years – important information for farmers tracking weather changes and water, fishing fleets operating in changing seas and coastal communities are building resilience.”
Ground controllers successfully established communication with the CubeSat at 8:48 a.m. EDT. The second PREFIRE CubeSat will lift off on its own Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in the coming days. After a 30-day check period, during which engineers and scientists will ensure that both CubeSats are operating normally, the mission is expected to operate for 10 months.
At the core of the PREFIRE mission is Earth’s energy budget—the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and outgoing heat given off by the planet. The difference between the two is what determines the planet’s temperature and climate. Much of the heat emitted from the Arctic and Antarctic is emitted as far infrared radiation, but there is currently no detailed measurement of this type of energy.
The water vapor content of the atmosphere, along with the presence, structure, and composition of clouds, affects the amount of infrared radiation that escapes into space from Earth’s poles. The data collected by PREFIRE will give researchers information about where and when far-infrared energy is emitted from the Arctic and Antarctic environment into space.
“PREFIRE CubeSats may be small, but they will fill a big gap in our knowledge of Earth’s energy budget,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Their observations will help us understand the basics of Earth’s heat balance, allowing us to better predict how our ice, seas and weather will change in the face of global warming.”
Each CubeSat on the mission carries an instrument called a thermal infrared spectrometer, which uses specially shaped mirrors and sensors to measure infrared wavelengths. The miniaturization of instruments to fit on CubeSats has necessitated a reduction in the size of some parts while increasing the size of other components.
“Our planet is changing rapidly, and in places like the Arctic, in ways that humans have never experienced before,” said Tristan L’Equière, principal investigator of PREFIRE, University of Wisconsin, Madison. “NASA’s PREFIRE will give us new measurements of the far-infrared wavelengths emitted by Earth’s poles that we can use to improve climate and weather models and help people around the world deal with the consequences of climate change. the climate.”
NASA’s Launch Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in partnership with NASA’s Earth System Research Program provides the launch service as part of the agency’s Dedicated and Shared Launch Services (VADR) acquisition contract.
The PREFIRE mission was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. NASA JPL 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 service provider is Rocket Lab USA Inc. from Long Beach, California.
To learn more about PREFIRE, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire/
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Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
