The US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) launched a tiny satellite from Mahia on Saturday in order to improve climate change prediction by measuring heat escaping from the North and South poles on earth for the first time.
The satellite is the size of a shoe box. It was launched by an Electron rocket, built by a company called Rocket Lab. The overall mission is called PREFIRE. Such small satellites are a more economically viable method to address very specific scientific questions.
Satellite expected to improve climate change prediction
Rocket Lab is, in fact, expected to later launch a similar satellite of its own. These tiny entities will serve to take infrared measurements for above the poles on the planet so as to measure directly the heat that the spots release into space.
Through the satellite launch, Nasa seeks to understand the role clouds, humidity or the melting of ice into water plays in the aforementioned heat loss from the poles. Until now, models that scientists used for similar purposes were based on theories, said Tristan L’Ecuyer.
The mission researcher added: “Hopefully we’ll be able to improve our ability to simulate what sea level rise might look like in the future and also how the polar climate change is going to affect the weather systems around the planet.”
Need for collective global action to fight climate change
Climate change research has become immensely important in recent years as the human activities-led crisis is elevating average temperatures in different countries and triggering natural disasters such as storms and floods of higher intensities.
The need for collective global action to prevent the crisis from deepening any further has never been this urgent. In order to keep climate change and its brutal consequences in check, global leaders must take stricter actions and companies and individuals should lend support.
