A Science Mission to Better Understand Earth’s Polar Regions | NASA/JPL

A Science Mission to Better Understand Earth’s Polar Regions | NASA/JPL

NASA’s PREFIRE mission aims to improve global climate change predictions by expanding our understanding of heat loss at the polar regions. The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) will send two shoebox-size satellites into space to study the Arctic and Antarctic. They will be the first to systematically measure heat in the form of far-infrared radiation emitted from those regions. 

Earth absorbs much of the Sun’s energy at the tropics. Weather and ocean currents then move that heat toward the poles, which help regulate Earth’s climate by radiating that heat back into space. However, the Arctic is warming about three times faster than anywhere else on Earth. This is leading to increased ice sheet melt and sea level rise in coastal communities. The data from PREFIRE will help scientists better understand how Earth’s polar regions respond to climate change and what that might mean for the future.

For more information: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin

Duration: 3 minutes, 38 seconds

Release Date: May 17, 2024

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