PREFIRE
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NASA
Sensing the Poles’ Hidden Heat
At the top and bottom of the planet, the seasons arrive on a schedule all their own. Satellite data from a mission measuring infrared energy reveal just how differently—and how dramatically—surface temperatures swing across two full years at the poles. In this animation, surface temperatures across the Arctic and Antarctic pulse between cold (dark blue) and milder to warm (lighter…
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NASA Mission Gets Its First Snapshot of Polar Heat Emissions
The PREFIRE mission will help develop a more detailed understanding of how much heat the Arctic and Antarctica radiate into space and how this influences global climate. NASA’s newest climate mission has started collecting data on the amount of heat in the form of far-infrared radiation that the Arctic and Antarctic environments emit to space. These measurements by the Polar…
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Press Releases
Rocket Lab Sets Date for Second NASA PREFIRE Launch
-Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today confirmed the scheduled launch date for the second of two back-to-back Electron launches for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) climate change-focused mission. The ‘PREFIRE and Ice’ launch is scheduled to take place on 1 June…
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NASA
Twin NASA Satellites Ready to Help Gauge Earth’s Energy Balance
Information from the PREFIRE mission will illuminate how clouds and water vapor in the Arctic and Antarctic influence the amount of heat the poles radiate into space. A pair of new shoebox-size NASA satellites will help unravel an atmospheric mystery that’s bedeviled scientists for years: how the behavior of clouds and water vapor at Earth’s polar regions affects our planet’s…
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NASA
5 Things to Know About NASA’s Tiny Twin Polar Satellites
Called PREFIRE, this CubeSat duo will boost our understanding of how much heat Earth’s polar regions radiate out to space and how that influences our climate. Twin shoebox-size climate satellites will soon be studying two of the most remote regions on Earth: the Arctic and Antarctic. The NASA mission will measure the amount of heat the planet emits into space…
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NASA
Meet NASA’s Twin Spacecraft Headed to the Ends of the Earth
Launching in spring 2024, the two small satellites of the agency’s PREFIRE mission will fill in missing data from Earth’s polar regions. Two new miniature NASA satellites will start crisscrossing Earth’s atmosphere in a few months, detecting heat lost to space. Their observations from the planet’s most bone-chilling regions will help predict how our ice, seas, and weather will change…
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NASA
Rocket Lab to Launch Climate Change Research Mission Focused on Arctic Ice Caps for NASA
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it has signed a double-launch deal with NASA to deliver the Agency’s climate change research-focused mission, PREFIRE, to low Earth orbit in 2024. The two dedicated missions on Electron will deploy one small satellite each to a 525km…
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NASA
NASA Announces Launch Service for Arctic Warming Experiment
NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to provide the launch service for the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission, which aims to give researchers a more accurate picture of the energy entering and leaving Earth. The PREFIRE mission will help close a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is…
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Press Releases
New NASA Space Sensors to Address Key Earth Science Questions
Why is the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the planet? Does mineral dust warm or cool the atmosphere? NASA has selected two new, creative research proposals to develop small, space-based instruments that will tackle these fundamental questions about our home planet and its environment. The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) will fly a pair…
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