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A revolutionary new satellite that will provide unprecedented insight into Earth’s microscopic marine life and tiny atmospheric particles is ready for launch.
NASA’s PACE mission, or Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and Ocean Ecosystem, is scheduled to lift off at 1:33 a.m. ET Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA’s website and YouTube channel.
Currently, the weather conditions are 95% favorable for the launch. The launch, originally scheduled for Tuesday morning, was delayed twice due to bad weather at the launch site.
Scientists began thinking about a way to better understand how oceanic and atmospheric processes shape the planet about 20 years ago, said Jeremy Werdell, PACE project scientist.
The mission will shed light on how aerosols and clouds as well as phytoplankton in the ocean act as indicators of ocean health and global warming. The three instruments on board PACE, including two polarimeters and one camera, will capture a rainbow of data across different wavelengths of light “that allow us to see things we’ve never been able to see before,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division.
“What we’re doing here with PACE is really searching for the microscopic, mostly invisible universe in the sea and the sky, and to some extent, on the ground 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 be part of a fleet of more than two dozen NASA Earth science missions around our planet that collect data on the oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to provide further insights into how the Earth’s climate is changing.
Together, missions like PACE and the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, known as SWOT, launched in 2022 could change the way researchers understand the Earth’s oceans.
“It is undeniable that we are in the midst of a climate crisis,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “From the rise in extreme weather events and devastating wildfires to rising sea levels, our planet is undergoing transformative changes. NASA is not just a space and aviation agency. We are a climate agency. We use the unique vantage point of space to study our home as a holistic planet, gathering vital earth science data. This information is then available to people around the world, enabling them to make informed decisions about how to protect our planet and its inhabitants for generations to come.”
Aerial views of the Earth’s skies
In January, NASA and other agencies announced that 2023 would be the hottest year on record, part of an overall trend in which global temperatures have increased over the past decade, said Kate Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate adviser. by NASA.
The warming is largely driven by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. After it is released, the land and oceans absorb carbon dioxide, but some of it remains in the atmosphere and absorbs greenhouse gases that warm the planet.
“One of the best things about a mission like PACE is that it will give us a better understanding of the exchange of carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere,” Calvin said.
But other factors contribute to warming, including aerosol particles in the atmosphere made up of pollutants, dust, smoke and sea salt. Aerosols can reflect or absorb sunlight and influence cloud formation, Calvin said.
Aerosols play a major role in the Earth’s weather, air quality and climate, St Germain said.
“They come from sources like dust blowing from the Sahara wildfires and even human activities,” St Germain said. “They seed clouds that can grow into hurricanes coming across the Atlantic, but they also reflect a lot of the sun’s energy. As such, they will play an important role in the long-term stability of the Earth’s climate.”
Aerosols can contribute to poor air quality that drives chronic conditions such as asthma, and understanding the composition of aerosols and their location in the atmosphere can help determine hotspots for air pollution and provide better warnings. supply, said Andy Sayer, PACE atmospheric scientist.
The two polarimeter instruments on PACE will help scientists study the particle size, composition and size of aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere across a range of wavelengths to provide a detailed portrait of the most problematic areas.
Mapping microscopic life from space
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, and these huge bodies of water tend to raise 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,” said St. Germain. “PACE will be the most advanced mission we have ever launched to study ocean biology. It will teach us about the oceans in the same way that Webb is teaching us about the cosmos.”
From orbit, PACE will search for the light reflected from tiny organisms called phytoplankton to see where they thrive as they float 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 threaten other life forms, from space for the first time.
Phytoplankton are at the bottom of the marine food web. Without those tiny organisms, that web would collapse, and the lack of global fisheries could be catastrophic for humans, according to NASA.
These microalgae use photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide and sunlight, generating oxygen and carbohydrates that feed all kinds of marine life. Phytoplankton began photosynthesising more than 3 billion years ago, long before trees and plants did, and contributed about 50% of all the oxygen ever produced on Earth, according to NASA.
Although phytoplankton play a major role in drawing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere, some species can also be harmful. Algal blooms can be vital to marine food webs such as those in polar regions, but some blooms produce dangerous toxins that can contaminate drinking water and disrupt entire ecosystems. The observations from PACE can help scientists understand the species causing the 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 in the oceans,” St Germain said.
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