Los Angeles (USA), May 25 (EFE).- This Saturday, NASA sent the first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at the Earth’s poles for the first time, which will help in research on climate change.
The CubeSats 1 satellite, the size of a shoe box, was launched into orbit by an Electron rocket, which took off from New Zealand as part of the PREFIRE mission, the US agency reported in a statement.
The mission will measure the amount of heat that Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest and most remote regions on the planet.
The data collected is expected to help researchers better predict how Earth’s ice, seas and climate will be affected by climate change.
Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Sciences Washington division, said in a statement that the data will help provide a “better understanding” of how our planet’s system will change in the coming years.
“(This) information is crucial for farmers tracking changes in climate and water, fishing fleets working in changing seas, and coastal communities strengthening their resilience,” he added.
PREFIRE is focused on evaluating the balance between incoming thermal energy from the Sun and outgoing heat emitted by the planet. Currently there is no detailed measurement of this type of energy.
“CubeSats may be small, but they will close a big gap in our knowledge of Earth’s energy budget,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
“Their observations will help us understand the fundamentals of the Earth’s thermal balance, allowing us to better predict how our ice, our seas and our climate will change in the face of global warming.”
The second satellite will be launched in the coming days for a 10-month mission. EFE
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