People living in coastal communities or those navigating treacherous waters will both benefit from the data flowing from the new Sentinel-6 Michael Freelich satellite mission.
The satellite is expected to be located at 12 noon EST (9:17 and 1717 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 21), at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, at Space Launch Complex 4, a five-year search for maps associated with global warming. Increase. The Sentinel-6 SpaceX will launch over the Falcon 9 rocket. You can watch it live here on space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
The weather is 80% of the time for a prime launch occasion on Saturdays and a backup launch time on Sundays at 12:04 pm EST (9:04 am local time and 1704 GMT). NASA held two media briefings on Friday to discuss how the new mission affects existing maps and models.
Related: NASA scientist gets a new Earth-observation satellite from his name
Sentinel-6 will not be introduced separately in the products of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but it will enhance the map of NOAA and other partners in the mission and produce to protect the world’s population from severe storms.
Sentinel-6 observations will include sea wave forecasts (simple for ocean ship products) and tropical storm forecasts to quickly evacuate coastal populations if the need arises.
Once Sentinel-6 has completed its one-year commissioning period, anyone around the world – including academics, students and other members of the public – can download raw data from the website of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (UUMTSAT).
If researchers are looking to improve their climate models, the work of the Sentinel-6 will easily connect with other science missions. For example, the ultimatum collected from Sentinel-6 could be combined with NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to measure Earth’s gravity.
This combination of measurements will show how much sea level rise is caused by melting ice sheets, and how much ocean expansion is caused by overall ocean warming, said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. Focused on the science return of the mission.
Related: Melting ice sheets will add 15 inches to global sea level by 2100
“Since oceans cover about 0% of the Earth’s surface, how do the oceans play an important role in the entire system? [of global warming] “He said.” These global changes are creating both dangers and opportunities for our human communities. “
The benefits of Sentinel-6 data will reach every area affected by climate change, as 90% of the heat trapped by man-made greenhouse gases eventually ends up in the ocean, said Josh Willis, NASA’s Sentinel-6 project scientist. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Science Briefing.
“We’re seeing an increase in sea level rates before our eyes, and these are the satellites that allow us to do that,” Willis said. He noted that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating, making it crucial to add high-definition data to existing satellite ultimators from Sentinel-6. Today’s sea level rise is close to 5 millimeters per year, more than double the charted annual rise in the 1990s.
The complex predictions are that sea level rise is not going at the same rate worldwide. European Space Agency’s Sentinel-6 project scientist Craig Donlon said in the same briefing that big cities like New York City and Amsterdam are particularly at risk of flooding water in their populations. Worst of all, he added, at a rate of one centimeter per sea level, about 30 million people worldwide are at risk of flooding.
“The earth is warm, and the biggest indicator is an increase in sea level,” Donlon said. While space satellites have been describing in detail for 30 years, the root of the problem dates back to the Industrial Revolution, when nations began burning huge reserves of carbon through coal, oil and other natural resources to power their economies.
While scientists await the exact results of Sentinel-6, projection teams are working to stay safe between new epidemiological protocols such as temperature checks when entering buildings, the physical distance between workers and quarantine after travel.
“Being trapped off the coast of California is also a bad thing,” he joked during a news conference on Friday, joking with Tim Dunn, launch director of NASA’s Launch Services program. While the team doesn’t eat at rest restaurants rent as usual, they are still doing team building activities like outdoor patio meetings and joint drills, he said.
Morrell remains high among the group and Dunn said he is proud of all the adaptations his colleagues have made. “It’s good to come together as a team, and to know the importance of what we’re doing,” he said. “It excites us and gives us the energy we need to keep moving forward.”
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