NASA Earth Science PREFIRE Mission | Rocket Lab Launch Preparations

NASA Earth Science PREFIRE Mission | Rocket Lab Launch Preparations

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. Launch of both cubesats on two Rocket Lab Electron rockets is planned no earlier than May 25, 2024 from Launch Complex 1 (LC-1)—a commercial rocket launch facility located at Māhia Peninsula, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.

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 

Image Credit: Rocket Lab

Image Dates: May 15, 2024

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