The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand on 25 May.
- NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission consists of two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats.
- These CubeSats will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest, most remote regions on the planet.
- Data from the PREFIRE mission will help researchers better predict how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world.
- At the heart of the PREFIRE mission is Earth’s energy budget – the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat given off by the planet.
