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October 15, 2020 by Steve Hanley
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite reached Vandenberg in Southern California after a two-day trip across the Atlantic and the United States from Munich, Germany. The satellite will be loaded atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will put it into orbit 830 miles above Earth on November 10. The satellite is the latest in a long line of instruments that have measured the world’s oceans beginning with the joint US-European TOPEX / Poseidon Project in 1992. The Sentinel 6 will be able to monitor the level of 90% of the world’s oceans with pinpoint accuracy, contributing greatly to the historical record initiated by TOPEX / Poseiden and providing Earth scientists with the most up-to-date data and authoritative information available on the world’s oceans along with data on the temperature and moisture content of the atmosphere .
Credit: NASA
Sentinel-6 is the product of a historic partnership between the United States and Europe between NASA and the European Space Agency. It is named after Michael Freilich, former director of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division and a tireless advocate for advancing satellite measurements of the ocean. Work will continue on the Jason 1, 2 and 3 satellites, the last of which was put into orbit in 2016.
“This continuous record of observations is essential for tracking sea level rise and understanding the factors that contribute to it,” says Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division. “With Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, we make sure that those measurements advance both in number and precision. This mission honors an exceptional scientist and leader, and will continue Mike’s legacy of advancements in ocean studies. “She adds:” The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite will expand our global sea level observation record, advance our understanding of the Earth as a system and will inform decision makers, from the federal to the local level, that they must manage the risks associated with Sea Level Rise. “
According to NASA, Earth’s oceans and atmosphere are inextricably connected. The sea absorbs more than 90% of the heat trapped by the increase in greenhouse gases, which causes the sea water to expand. This expansion accounts for about a third of modern sea level rise, while meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets accounts for the rest. The rate of sea level rise has accelerated in the past two decades and scientists expect it to accelerate further in the coming years. The increase will change the coasts and increase flooding from tides and storms. The Sentinel-6 satellite will help provide the data necessary to measure both the extent and rate of change of sea level rise.
“Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is a milestone for sea level measurements,” says project scientist Josh Willis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages NASA contributions to the mission. “This is the first time that we have been able to develop multiple satellites spanning a full decade, recognizing that climate change and rising sea levels are here to stay.” The launch of a sister Sentinel-6 satellite, known as Sentinel-6B, is expected to launch in 2025. ESA is developing the new Sentinel family of missions to support the operational needs of the EU’s Copernicus program, the observation of the earth. program managed by the European Commission.
“It has been a long journey of planning, development and testing for the mission team,” said Pierrik Vuilleumier, director of mission projects at ESA. “We are proud to work with our international partners on such a critical mission for sea level studies and we look forward to many years for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to take critical sea level and atmospheric data from orbit.” Although Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has already undergone rigorous testing, it will go through a final check at SpaceX’s Vandenberg payload processing facility to verify that the satellite is working properly and ready for launch.
Previous satellites have been very good at measuring large ocean features like the Gulf Stream, but they have had a difficult time measuring small variations in sea level near shores. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will collect higher resolution measurements and include new technology: an advanced microwave radiometer that, in combination with a Poseidon-4 radar altimeter, will allow researchers to see smaller and more complicated ocean features occurring near shores. .
The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites will operate the satellite. Paul Counet, his head of strategy, tells Bloomberg: “Global and regional sea level measurements have become a valuable tool for decision makers to assess one of the most compelling impacts of climate change and how to prepare for it. the flooding of coastal areas “.
Climate change not only affects the oceans and the Earth’s surface, it affects all levels of the atmosphere, from the troposphere to the stratosphere. An instrument on Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich uses a technique called radio occultation to measure the physical properties of Earth’s atmosphere. It’s called the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation and it tracks radio signals from navigation satellites orbiting the Earth. When a satellite descends or rises above the horizon from the perspective of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, its radio signal passes through the atmosphere. As you do so, the signal slows down, its frequency changes, and its path bends. Scientists can use this refractive effect to measure minute changes in atmospheric density, temperature, and moisture content.
When researchers add this information to existing data from similar instruments currently in space, they will be able to better understand how Earth’s climate is changing over time. “Like long-term measurements of sea level, we also need long-term measurements of our changing atmosphere to better understand the full impacts of climate change,” said Chi Ao, GNSS-RO instrument scientist at JPL. “Radio cloaking is a wonderfully precise and accurate way to do that.”
The satellite’s radar altimeter will collect measurements of sea surface conditions, including significant wave heights, and the data collected by the GNSS-RO instrument will complement existing observations of the atmosphere. These combined measurements will help meteorologists improve weather forecasts. In addition, information on the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere, as well as the temperature of the upper layer of the ocean, will help to improve the models that track the formation and evolution of hurricanes.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, is contributing three scientific instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Satellite Navigation System – Radio Concealment, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems that support the operation of NASA science instruments, science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the International Ocean Surface Surveying Science Team. NASA hired SpaceX to launch the satellite. ]
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About the Author
Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his homes in Florida and Connecticut or wherever Singularity takes him. You can follow it on Twitter but not on any social media platform run by evil lords like Facebook.
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