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The United States and Europe launched a satellite from California on Saturday to measure global sea-level elevation over decades.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried by the satellite left Vandenberg Air Base at 9:17 am and headed for the Pacific Ocean. The first phase of the Falcon has returned to the launch site, where it can be reused.
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite must install its solar panels and make initial contact with controllers.
The satellite’s primary instrument is a high-precision radio altimeter that emits pulses of energy to the surface as they fly over the world’s oceans. An identical twin, Sentinel-6B, will be launched in 2025 to ensure continuous recording.
Sea level measurements have been taken continuously since the 1992 launch of the French-American satellite TOPEX-Poseidon, followed by others up to the current Jason-3.
Sea level elevation is affected by water heating and cooling, which allows scientists to use altimeter data to detect climate-affecting phenomena such as El Niño, which is a warm current, and La Niña. it’s cold.
The measurements are also important for understanding the rise in sea levels due to global warming, which scientists say puts coasts and billions of people at risk.
“Our Earth is a complex system of connected dynamics between the earth, the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere and, of course, our human populations, and that system is changing,” said the director of the Science Division. NASA Earth, Karen St. Germain, Friday at a pre-launch conference.
“Since 70% of the earth’s surface is oceanic, the oceans play a huge role in how the system as a whole changes,” he said.
The new satellite is unprecedented accuracy.
This is an extremely important parameter for climate monitoring, “said Josef Aschbacher, director of Earth observations at the European Space Agency. The Associated Press.
“We know the sea level is rising,” Aschbacher said. The big question is how long and how fast.
Other instruments on board will measure how radio signals pass through the atmosphere, providing data on atmospheric temperature and humidity that will help improve weather forecasts.
Europe and the United States share the cost of the mission, of 1 billion dollars (900 million euros), which includes the satellite twins.
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