This Tuesday, NASA plans to launch a revolutionary satellite that will allow it to analyze Earth’s “vital signs” and better understand the health of the planet, especially the oceans and atmosphere.
The PACE satellite, which will be aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to lift off at 01:33 (06:33 Lisbon time) from Cape Canaveral in central Florida.
NASA oceanographer Violeta Sanjuan explained this Monday to the Efe agency that PACE will be placed in orbit further than the International Space Station (ISS), approximately 677 kilometers from Earth.
The Spanish scientist stressed that this is a revolutionary satellite as it will provide detailed information about the ocean, especially about microalgae (phytoplankton), which has never been possible before.
Phytoplankton, he explains, make up only 1% of the planet’s total plant mass (including terrestrial plants), but even so “generates 50% to 60% of the oxygen” available on the planet.
“They are very efficient at capturing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, much more efficiently than land plants,” he stressed.
The PACE mission (an acronym for Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds and Ocean Ecosystems) is unique because, in addition to analyzing phytoplankton in detail, it does so in terms of their interactions with aerosols and airborne materials.
“This will provide incredible insight that we haven’t had until now about how our oceans behave, what our atmosphere is like and how they interact and regulate our climate,” Sanjuan said.
The satellite consists of three instruments, one of which is a sensor that can recognize up to 256 colors in the ocean, while previous instruments could only distinguish less than ten shades, he further elaborated.
“The amount of data is incredible compared to what we had before,” the scientist emphasized.
The importance of identifying these shades is due to the fact that the color of phytoplankton varies depending on its species.
The organism is very important not only because it is the base of the food chain and the source of life, but also because of its importance to climate change, Sanjuan added.
“Knowing the health of our oceans is very important because they are the lungs of our planet,” said the PACE mission oceanographer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Sanjuan recalled that the ocean makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface and that only about 5% has been studied.
In this sense, he emphasizes that PACE is a “technological leap” that will achieve significant advances over its three-year service life.
Sanjuan also stressed that the satellite will have a ten-year fuel supply and hopes it will survive longer than the three years the North American Space Agency has given its mission.
The Spanish company clarified that the satellite will fly in an orbit moving with the Earth, and that certain regions may exist on the planet with a repetition of one to two days, which helps to observe changes in the World Ocean and study the evolution of these types of phytoplankton.
This information is critical “for climate change, the carbon cycle and the life of the planet,” he noted.
The $946 million PACE mission includes a fleet of twenty satellites that monitor various parameters of the Earth.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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