Thanks to new images from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite, scientists now have more information to study how human-induced climate change is affecting our planet.
The Clouds and Aerosols mission was scheduled to launch on May 29, 2024 from Vandenberg Space Center. SpaceX The Falcon 9 rocket launched with the Broadband Radiometer just a month later. First Image An image from the mission. The team says the image captures Earth’s energy balance, showing how much energy the planet absorbs from solar radiation and how much thermal radiation the planet subsequently emits back into space.
This mission is crucial as global temperatures rise, as EarthCARE’s work will enable scientists to better understand how human activities are contributing to increased global warming. Greenhouse gases It also became clear that aerosols are released into the Earth’s atmosphere by industrial plants, transportation and agricultural activities.
“Of course, we never doubted the potential of the EarthCare Broadband Radiometer, but very early on in the mission we saw that the instrument was working very well and providing excellent data,” said Simonetta Celli, ESA’s Earth Observation Programme Director. He said in a statement.
Related: SpaceX launches EarthCARE satellite during rocket flight doubleheader
“Each of the satellite’s different instruments plays a very important role, and when they all work in harmony and the satellite is operational, the scientific community and weather forecasters will have a powerful tool to improve our understanding of the Earth’s energy balance, advance climate science and improve weather forecasts,” Celli added.
The radiometer is one of four instruments on board the satellite that will reveal what role clouds and aerosols play in controlling the climate. Last month, the satellite’s cloud-profiling radar instrument The image was taken The satellite’s clarification of cloud dynamics and internal structure marked a turning point in the study of clouds from space.
“We are pleased to present this first image, which reveals details of the inner structure of cloud movement over the ocean east of Japan on June 13,” said Takuji Kubota. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) Cloud Profiling Radar Mission Scientist, in a separate statement. “This is the first image of its kind. We’ve never had this kind of information measured from space before. This is more than we could have hoped for. We believe this cloud profiling radar will lead to a range of scientific discoveries.”
Typically, these kinds of measurements can only be made from ground-based cloud radar or aircraft, but the EarthCARE satellites scan the planet more uniformly, providing a three-dimensional view that helps researchers understand climate science like never before.
