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NASA Launches Satellite to Measure Heat Loss, Improve Forecasts
A small NASA satellite designed to make the first-ever detailed measurements of heat loss from Earth's poles lifted off from New Zealand today on a mission called PREFIRE that could improve climate change predictions.
© Alex Wong/Getty Images
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"This new information, which we have never had before, will help us to create models of what's happening at the poles and for the climate," said Karen St. Germain, NASA's Earth Science Division Director, at a press conference in mid-May.
The satellite, which is about the size of a shoebox, was launched by Rocket Lab from Mahia on the North Island of New Zealand, and the company is scheduled to launch a second, similar satellite later this year.
The two satellites will take measurements over the Arctic and Antarctic to quantify, for the first time, how much heat is lost to space.
This loss is "critical because it helps balance the excess heat received from the tropics and regulates Earth's temperature," explained Tristan L'Ecuyer, the mission's science lead from the University of Wisconsin.
"And the process that drives heat from the tropics to the poles is what drives all weather on Earth," he added.
With PREFIRE, NASA hopes to understand how clouds, moisture or the transition of a surface from ice to liquid influences this heat loss.
Until now, the models that scientists use to predict global warming have relied on theory rather than actual observations for this parameter, L'Ecuyer said.
"We expect to improve our ability to simulate future sea level rise, as well as how polar climate change will affect the planet's weather systems," he said.
The satellite joins more than two dozen other NASA Earth missions currently in orbit.
Small satellites like the ones in this mission, called CubeSats, represent a real opportunity to answer specific questions at a lower cost, according to Karen St. Germain.
If large, more classical satellites can be seen as "generalists," these smaller ones are more like "specialists," the NASA official said, adding that the space agency "needs both."
Read Also: NASA sets new date for launch of Starliner capsule (Portuguese version)
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