A small but mighty NASA satellite was launched from New Zealand on Saturday with the groundbreaking mission of enhancing climate change predictions by measuring heat emissions from Earth’s polar regions for the first time.
“This new data, which we’ve never had access to before, will significantly improve our climate modeling capabilities, particularly concerning the polar regions,” explained Karen St. Germain, NASA’s Director of Earth Science Research, during a recent press conference.
The satellite, roughly the size of a shoebox, embarked on its journey aboard an Electron rocket, developed by Rocket Lab, which took off from Mahia Peninsula in northern New Zealand.
This mission, known as PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment), represents a crucial step in understanding Earth’s climate dynamics.
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Rocket Lab, the company responsible for the launch, is also scheduled to deploy a similar satellite in the near future.
Together, these satellites will collect infrared measurements from high above the Arctic and Antarctic, directly assessing the heat released from these regions into space.
The primary objective of PREFIRE is to improve our comprehension of how various factors such as cloud cover, humidity levels, and the melting of ice into water influence the heat loss from the polar areas. By obtaining this previously inaccessible data, NASA aims to refine its climate models, leading to more accurate predictions and a better understanding of climate change impacts.