NASA on Friday completed the successful launch of a weather-observing satellite that's intended to provide data for more accurate weather forecasts and climate change predictions.
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, known as NPP, lifted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:48am Eastern this morning aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.
"Now the future of NPP starts and we look forward to NPP touching the rest of the world," Ken Schwer, NPP project manager, said in a statement.
The two-ton spacecraft will orbit 512 miles above Earth, where it will be able to see every part of the planet.
The goal of the NPP is two-fold, NASA said. First, scientists want to gather data for weather forecasts, which "will be used by virtually all of the national weather services for all the nations of the world," including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, said James Gleason, NPP project scientist.
NPP will "make America a more weather-ready nation," said Mary Glackin, NOAA's deputy undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.
Second, researchers want to monitor climate change. "Is the ground greener or browner over time? Has the sea surface temperature changed? Has the ozone changed? These are all data sets that we have that we have multi-decades sets of data sets and we just want to keep adding to that so we can answer the question, is the climate changing?" Gleason said.
The NPP effort expands on the existing earth orbiting satellite (EOS) systems. "For weather forecasting and for climate predictions, you need to have continuous observations," Gleason said. "So what NPP does is continue the data record started by the NASA EOS satellites and improves on the instruments that are used for numerical weather forecasting from the current series of NOAA satellites."
NPP is equipped with five sensors, which created some extra challenges around the launch. "Some spacecraft have one instrument. And every mission has to go through environmental testing, so now you have to go through environmental testing with five different instruments, which all carry their own set of requirements and restrictions," said Bruce Reid, NASA's mission manager for NPP.
As USA Today pointed out, NPP's liftoff has been a long-time coming. It was originally scheduled for 2006, but issues with instruments delayed its launch, and resulted in a $1.5 billion price tag.
In June, NASA launched the Aquarius satellite, which will measure the saltiness of the oceans to also provide clues about the Earth's climate.
More details about NPP's journey can be found on the NASA Web site.
"Now the future of NPP starts and we look forward to NPP touching the rest of the world," Ken Schwer, NPP project manager, said in a statement.
The two-ton spacecraft will orbit 512 miles above Earth, where it will be able to see every part of the planet.
The goal of the NPP is two-fold, NASA said. First, scientists want to gather data for weather forecasts, which "will be used by virtually all of the national weather services for all the nations of the world," including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, said James Gleason, NPP project scientist.
NPP will "make America a more weather-ready nation," said Mary Glackin, NOAA's deputy undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.
Second, researchers want to monitor climate change. "Is the ground greener or browner over time? Has the sea surface temperature changed? Has the ozone changed? These are all data sets that we have that we have multi-decades sets of data sets and we just want to keep adding to that so we can answer the question, is the climate changing?" Gleason said.
The NPP effort expands on the existing earth orbiting satellite (EOS) systems. "For weather forecasting and for climate predictions, you need to have continuous observations," Gleason said. "So what NPP does is continue the data record started by the NASA EOS satellites and improves on the instruments that are used for numerical weather forecasting from the current series of NOAA satellites."
NPP is equipped with five sensors, which created some extra challenges around the launch. "Some spacecraft have one instrument. And every mission has to go through environmental testing, so now you have to go through environmental testing with five different instruments, which all carry their own set of requirements and restrictions," said Bruce Reid, NASA's mission manager for NPP.
As USA Today pointed out, NPP's liftoff has been a long-time coming. It was originally scheduled for 2006, but issues with instruments delayed its launch, and resulted in a $1.5 billion price tag.
In June, NASA launched the Aquarius satellite, which will measure the saltiness of the oceans to also provide clues about the Earth's climate.
More details about NPP's journey can be found on the NASA Web site.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment