NASA’s PREFIRE mission weather forecast for the climate change uses CubeSats to track the heat emissions from the Earth’s polesimproving the forecasts for the loss of sea ice they impacts of climate change. The first of the two climate satellites designed to study how much thermal energy L’Arctic and theAntarctica radiate into space for NASA is in orbit after liftoff aboard the rocket Electron by Rocket Lab from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand.
NASA’s PREFIRE mission consists of two cube satellites about the size of a shoebox, or CubeSatswhich will measure the quantity of heat that the Earth radiates 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 the icei seas and the time of the Earth in a warming world, providing our scientists with a detailed picture of how the Earth’s polar regions influence the amount of power that our planet absorbs and releases.
At the heart of the PREFIRE mission is the Earth’s energy balance – the balance betweenthermal energy incoming from the Sun and the heat outgoing emitted by the planet. The difference between the two determines the temperature and the climate of the planet. Much of the heat radiated from the Arctic and Antarctic is emitted as far infrared radiationbut there is currently no detailed measurement of this type of energy.
The water vapor content of the atmospheretogether with the presence, structure and composition of clouds, influences the amount of far infrared radiation which escapes into space from the Earth’s poles. The data collected by PREFIRE will provide researchers with information on where and whenfar infrared energy it radiates from Arctic and Antarctic environments into space.
Every CubeSat of the mission carries an instrument called thermal infrared spectrometer, which uses specially shaped mirrors and sensors to measure infrared wavelengths. Miniaturizing the instruments to fit the CubeSats required reducing some parts and increasing other components.
There PREFIRE mission was developed jointly by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. NASA’s 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. of Long Beach, California.
