Quest Will Help Develop Understanding of Global Climate Influences

NASA has received its first snapshot of far-infrared radiation emitted by Arctic and Antarctic environments in its latest climate mission. This aims to develop the agency’s understanding of how the regions affect heat emissions and global climate change.

The mission, titled Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE), was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It consists of two satellites, or CubeSats, about the size of a shoebox. The first was launched on May 25 and the second followed ten days later.

The first PREFIRE CubeSat started returning science data on July 1. The second CubeSat has been collecting data since July 25, but an issue with the GPS has prevented it from being transmitted.

“We are constantly looking for new ways to observe the planet and fill in critical gaps in our knowledge. With CubeSats like PREFIRE, we are doing both,” explained Karen St. Germain, Director of the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters. “The mission, part of our competitively-selected Earth Venture program, is a great example of the innovative science we can achieve through collaboration with university and industry partners.”

Heat energy emitted from warmer climates gets absorbed by Earth and is transported through currents to the Arctic and Antarctic. A good bit of this heat travels into the atmosphere in far-infrared radiation, or wavelengths greater than 15 micrometers. The PREFIRE mission works to precisely measure these emissions. NASA will receive detailed information on how water vapor and clouds affect the amount of heat that escapes Earth, which is critical to their understanding of climate change.

The initial visualization from the CubeSats displays brightness temperatures -- the intensity of radiation emitted from Earth. It shows mid-infrared emissions from early July, far-infrared emissions at different atmospheric levels, and the intersection of two passes over Greenland to show how the intensity changed between them.

“It’s so exciting to see the data coming in,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, PREFIRE’s principal investigator. “With the addition of the far-infrared measurements from PREFIRE, we’re seeing for the first time the full energy spectrum that Earth radiates into space.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov