INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NASA&s newest climate satellite rocketed into orbit Thursday to survey the world&s oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.SpaceX
launched the Pace satellite on its $948 million mission before dawn, with the Falcon rocket heading south over the Atlantic to achieve a
rare polar orbit, AP reported.The satellite will spend at least three years studying the oceans from 420 miles (676 kilometers) up, as well
It will scan the globe daily with two of the science instruments
A third instrument will take monthly measurements.
&It&s going to be an unprecedented view of our home planet,& said project scientist
Jeremy Werdell.The observations will help scientists improve hurricane and other severe weather forecasts, detail Earth&s changes as
temperatures rise and better predict when harmful algae blooms will happen.NASA already has more than two dozen Earth-observing satellites
But Pace should give better insights into how atmospheric aerosols like pollutants and volcanic ash and sea life like algae and plankton
interact with each other.&Pace will give us another dimension& to what other satellites observe, said NASA&s director of Earth science,
Germain.
Pace — short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem — is the most advanced mission ever launched to study ocean
biology.Current Earth-observing satellites can see in seven or eight colors, according to Werdell
Pace will see in 200 colors that will allow scientists to identify the types of algae in the sea and types of particles in the
air.Scientists expect to start getting data in a month or two.NASA is collaborating with India on another advanced Earth-observing satellite
Named Nisar, it will use radar to measure the effect of rising temperatures on glaciers and other melting icy surfaces.
NASA&s Pace project
persevered despite efforts by the Trump administration to cancel it.&It has been a long, strange trip as they say,& Werdell said before the
launch.The post NASA climate satellite blasts off to survey oceans and atmosphere of warming Earth first appeared on Ariana News.
