VEN ENDENBURG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORY. – A US-European satellite designed to extend the size of global sea surface to decades of elevation was launched into Earth orbit from California on Saturday.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite exploded at 9:17 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base and headed south toward the Pacific Ocean. The first phase of the Falcon flew to the launch site again and landed for reuse.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freelich satellite came out of the second phase about an hour later. It then deployed its solar panels and first made contact with the controllers.
Named after a former NASA official who played a key role in the development of space-based oceanography, the satellite’s main instrument is a highly accurate radar altimeter that will bounce energy from the surface of the ocean floating above the Earth’s oceans. A similar twin, the Sentinel-6B, will be launched in 2025 to ensure record continuity.
Since the 1992-US-French satellite TopX-Poseidon was launched, space-based sea level measures have been uninterrupted, followed by a series of satellites, including the later Jason-3.
The heat and cooling of the water affects the altitude of the sea surface, allowing the scientist to use ultimatum data to detect weather-affected conditions such as hot El Niનોo and cold La Niનાa.
Measures to understand sea level rise due to global warming are also important as scientists warn that it poses a threat to the world’s coast and billions of people.
“Our Earth is a complex system of dynamics connected between land, sea, ice, atmosphere and of course our human communities, and that system is changing,” said Karen St. Garmin, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. Briefing Friday.
“Since the oceans cover about 0% of the Earth’s surface, the oceans play a huge role in how the whole system changes,” he said.
The new satellite is expected to have unprecedented accuracy.
“This is a very important parameter for climate observation,” Joseph Ashbabaker, the European Space Agency’s director of earth observation, told the Associated Press this week.
“We know sea levels are rising,” Aschbecker said. The big question is, how much, how fast.
Radio signals will measure how other signals pass through the atmosphere, providing data on atmospheric temperature and humidity that can help improve global weather forecasts.
Europe and the United States are sharing ની 1.1 billion (900 million euros) worth of missions, including twin satellites.
