PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) polar mission

Current Context : NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) polar mission is set to be launched from New Zealand on May 22.

• NASA’s tiny twin satellites as part of the PREFIRE polar mission will be launch first.
• The second CubeSat is targeting a launch two weeks after the first launch.
• It is equipped with technology proven on Mars, and will measure a “little-studied portion” of the radiant energy emitted by Earth.
• Objective : to reveal the full spectrum of heat loss from Earth’s polar regions for the first time, making climate models more accurate.
• Understand why the Arctic has warmed more than 2½ times faster than the rest of the planet since the 1970s.
• The data from the mission will help to improve our understanding of the greenhouse effect at the poles — specifically, the capacity of water vapor, clouds, and other elements of Earth’s atmosphere to trap heat and keep it from radiating into space.