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A revolutionary new satellite has been launched that will provide an unprecedented view of Earth’s microscopic marine life and tiny atmospheric particles.
NASA’s PACE, or Plankton, aerosols, clouds and ocean ecosystemsThe mission lifted off at 1:33 a.m. ET Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket booster successfully landed on Earth about 10 minutes after launch. Just over half an hour after liftoff, the team confirmed that the spacecraft’s solar panels were deployed and it was receiving power.
The launch, initially scheduled for Tuesday morning, was delayed twice due to strong winds and cumulus clouds. But weather conditions were more than 95% favorable for launch Thursday morning.
Scientists began imagining a way to better understand how ocean and atmospheric processes shape the planet about 20 years ago, said Jeremy Werdell, a PACE project scientist.
John Raoux/AP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s PACE mission lifted off Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The mission will shed light on how aerosols and clouds, as well as phytoplankton in the ocean, serve as indicators of ocean health and global warming. The three instruments aboard PACE, including two polarimeters and a camera, will capture a rainbow of data at different wavelengths of light that “will allow us to see things we’ve never been able to see before,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA Earth Sciences Division.
“What we are doing here with PACE is actually the search for the largely invisible microscopic universe in the sea and sky, and to some degrees, on land as well,” Werdell said.
Although designed as a three-year mission, PACE has enough fuel to continue orbiting and studying Earth for up to 10 years. The spacecraft will join a fleet of more than two dozen NASA ground science missions orbiting our planet and collecting data on the oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to provide more information about how Earth’s climate is changing. the earth.
Together, missions like PACE and the international Ocean and Surface Water Surveying mission, known as NERDwhich launched in 2022, could also change the way researchers understand Earth’s oceans.
“It is undeniable that we are in the midst of a climate crisis,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Our planet is experiencing transformative changes from increased extreme weather events and devastating wildfires to rising sea levels. NASA is not just a space and aeronautical agency. We are a climate agency. We take advantage of space’s unique vantage point to study our home as a holistic planet, collecting vital earth science data. This information will then be available to people around the world, empowering them to make informed decisions about how to safeguard our planet and its inhabitants for generations to come.”
In January, NASA and other agencies announced that 2023 was the hottest year on recordpart of a general trend in which global temperatures have warmed over the past decade, said Kate Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA.
The warming is largely due to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. After being released, carbon dioxide is absorbed by land and oceans, but some remains in the atmosphere and traps planet-warming greenhouse gases.
“One of the best things about a mission like PACE is that it will allow us to better understand the exchange of carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere,” Calvin said.
But other factors contribute to warming, including aerosol particles in the atmosphere that together are made up of pollutants, dust, smoke and sea salt. Aerosols can reflect or absorb sunlight and affect cloud formation, Calvin said.
Aerosols play a tremendous role in Earth’s weather, air quality and climate, St. Germain said.
“They come from sources such as dust from Saharan forest fires and even from human activities,” St. Germain said. “They produce clouds that can become hurricanes as they cross the Atlantic, but they also reflect much of the sun’s energy. “Therefore, they will play an important role in the long-term stability of the Earth’s climate.”
Aerosols can contribute to poor air quality that leads to chronic diseases like asthma, and understanding the composition of aerosols and their location in the atmosphere can help determine hotspots of polluted air and provide better warnings, Andy said. Sayer, PACE atmospheric scientist.
PACE’s two polarimeter instruments will help scientists study the particle size, composition and quantity of aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere at a variety of wavelengths to provide a detailed portrait of the most problematic areas.
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, and these huge bodies of water often present more questions than answers, but scientists hope PACE can help change that.
“In many ways, we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our own oceans,” St. Germain said. “PACE will be the most advanced mission we have ever launched to study ocean biology. “It will teach us about the oceans the same way Webb teaches us about the cosmos.”
From orbit, PACE will look for light reflected by small organisms called phytoplankton to see where they thrive floating on the surface of Earth’s oceans. The mission carries the Ocean Color Instrument. It will use more than 100 different wavelengths of light to study phytoplankton on a global scale and identify different species, including some that pose a threat to other life forms, from space for the first time.
Norman Kuring/Ocean Color NASA Web/U.S. Geological Survey Landsat data.
The waters off the coast of Alaska typically come alive each year with eye-catching phytoplankton blooms that cause blue and green seawater patterns, like those observed by the Landsat 8 satellite in June 2018.
Phytoplankton exist at the base of the marine food web. Without the tiny organisms, that network would collapse and the lack of global fisheries could be devastating for humans, according to POT.
These microalgae use photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide and sunlight, generating oxygen and carbohydrates that nourish all types of marine life. Phytoplankton began photosynthesis more than 3 billion years ago, long before trees and plants, and have contributed about 50% of all the oxygen ever produced on Earth, according to POT.
While phytoplankton play an important role in removing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere, some species can also be harmful. Algal blooms may be critical to marine food webs such as those in the polar regions, but some The flowers produce dangerous toxins. that can spoil drinking water and alter entire ecosystems. PACE observations can help scientists understand which species cause toxic blooms, track and monitor them over time, and determine how to prevent them in the future.
“I like to say that PACE is a mission that will use that unique view of space to study the smallest things that have the biggest impact on the oceans,” St. Germain said.