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Another NASA satellite is in space. Called PACE (acronym for “Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem”), the satellite was launched during the early hours of this Thursday (8) with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. When it begins operations, PACE will observe the Earth’s atmosphere and climate, helping scientists also analyze the state of the oceans.
Falcon 9 left the Space Launch Complex 40 platform at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3:33 am Brasília time. About five minutes after launch, the rocket’s upper stage released PACE into a heliosynchronous orbit 677 km above Earth.
Now, PACE components will work to get its various subsystems up and running. Afterwards, the mission team will assess whether everything is going as expected — and, if so, the satellite will be able to begin its scientific work. According to NASA, ground stations have already contacted PACE, providing preliminary data on its status after launch.
When it comes into action, the data obtained by the satellite will help scientists understand how carbon dioxide exchanges occur between the ocean and the atmosphere, also revealing how aerosols can influence the growth of phytoplankton. Furthermore, the data will extend and expand NASA’s long-term observations, checking the “vital signs” of our planet in the coming decades.
To achieve this, PACE has three instruments. One of them is the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) spectrometer, which will map the wavelengths of colors determined by interactions between sunlight and particles in the water. The others are polarimeters, which will measure how the polarization of light (its oscillation in a plane) is affected by its passage through the ocean, clouds and aerosols.
Source: NASA
2024-02-08 14:54:44
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