NASA’s PACE satellite will provide information on how the ocean and atmosphere interact and how climate changes affect those interactions.
NASA has launched a climate satellite that will study the ocean’s health, air quality and the effects of climate changes for at least three years.
Launched on February 8, the satellite known as PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem) is able to capture the oceans and the atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The observations will help scientists to improve forecasts of hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena and to analyze in detail the Earth’s changes as temperatures rise.
“With this new addition to NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites, PACE will help us learn like never before how particles in our atmosphere and oceans can identify key factors impacting global warming. Missions like this are supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate agenda and helping us answer urgent questions about our changing climate,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator, in a statement.
NASA’s latest satellite stands out from the more than two dozen Earth observation satellites and instruments in orbit because it should provide a better understanding of how atmospheric aerosols (such as pollutants and volcanic ash) and marine life (such as algae and plankton) interact with each other.
According to project scientist Jeremy Werdell, while current Earth observation satellites can see in seven or eight colors, PACE will see in 200 colors. This will allow scientists to track the distribution of phytoplankton and, for the first time from space, identify the phytoplankton communities present on a daily and global scale.
“The Earth’s oceans are responding in many ways to climate change – from rising sea levels to marine heatwaves and loss of biodiversity,” the statement reads. “Scientists and coastal resource managers can use the data to help predict the state of fisheries, detect harmful algae blooms and identify changes in the marine environment.”
“PACE’s observations and scientific research will profoundly advance our understanding of the role of the oceans in the climate cycle,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The spacecraft is also carrying two polarimeter instruments “that will detect how sunlight interacts with particles in the atmosphere, providing researchers with new information on atmospheric aerosols and cloud properties, as well as air quality at local, regional and global levels.”
The scientists hope to start receiving data within a month or two.
PACE was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida and is considered the most advanced mission ever launched to study the biology of the oceans. The project persevered despite the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel it.
In addition to this mission, NASA is collaborating with India on another advanced Earth observation satellite that will use radar to measure the effect of rising temperatures on glaciers and other melting ice surfaces. Its launch is scheduled for this year.
Marta Cerqueira is from Minho and vegetarian. Luckily, she lives in Lisbon, where there is more tofu than sarrabulho. She has been a journalist for over 15 years, the last of which writing about food and sustainability. Now, out of the newsroom, she continues to write whenever she can, be it in magazines, journals, post its, or on her Instagram page, which she uses to share a life divided between being a mom-person-foodie-traveler. Still, she created Peggada so she could write about what doesn't fit in a magazine, journal, post it or Instagram: a better world.
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