NASA's New Climate Sentinels: How CubeSat Missions Decode Earth's Polar Heat Secrets

This artist’s concept depicts one of two PREFIRE CubeSats in orbit around Earth. The NASA mission will measure the amount of far-infrared radiation the planet’s polar regions shed to space – information that’s key to understanding Earth’s energy balance. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s New Climate Sentinels: How CubeSat Missions Decode Earth’s Polar Heat Secrets

NASA launched this Saturday the first of a pair of innovative climate satellites that will study, for the first time, heat emissions at the Earth’s poles. The satellite, named CubeSats 1 and the size of a shoebox, was launched into orbit by an Electron rocket that took off from New Zealand as part of the PREFIRE mission. The mission will measure the amount of heat that Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest and most remote regions of the planet. Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Washington Earth Sciences division, explained that the data will help to have … Continue reading NASA’s New Climate Sentinels: How CubeSat Missions Decode Earth’s Polar Heat Secrets