In regards to the measurement of a full-size pickup truck, a newly launched satellite tv for pc by NASA and its companions will present ocean and atmospheric data to enhance hurricane forecasts, assist defend infrastructure, and profit business actions, equivalent to transport.
The Sentinel-6B satellite tv for pc lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Advanced 4 East at Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. Contact between the satellite tv for pc and a floor station in northern Canada occurred about 1 hour and half-hour later at 10:54 p.m. All techniques are functioning usually.
“Understanding tidal patterns right down to the inch is important in defending how we use our oceans day-after-day on Earth,” stated Nicky Fox, affiliate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Sentinel-6B will construct upon the legacy of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich by making sea degree measurements that enhance forecasts utilized by communities, companies, and operations throughout the nation. It additionally will assist a safer reentry for our astronauts returning house, together with crew from Artemis Moon missions.”
Sea ranges differ from place to position, and the satellite tv for pc will present correct measurements at each native and world scales — all from tons of of miles above in low Earth orbit. These observations kind the idea for U.S. flood predictions, that are essential for safeguarding coastal infrastructure, actual property, vitality storage websites, and different coastal belongings. Sentinel-6B will take over for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which launched in 2020 and later turned the official reference satellite tv for pc for world sea degree measurements, offering sea floor peak measurements in opposition to which these from different satellites are in contrast for accuracy.
The satellite tv for pc comes from a collaboration between a number of companions, together with NASA, ESA (European Area Company), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is also a part of the European Union’s household of Copernicus missions.
“Collaboration between companions is essential to a mission equivalent to Sentinel-6, and my thanks go to everybody concerned in growing, launching, and working this distinctive satellite tv for pc, which follows within the footsteps of the primary Sentinel-6, Michael Freilich,” stated Simonetta Cheli, director, ESA’s Earth Remark Programmes. “This achievement demonstrates what could be completed when worldwide businesses and industries work collectively towards a shared purpose. Sentinel-6B will guarantee we proceed to gather the high-precision knowledge wanted to know our altering local weather, safeguard our oceans and assist selections that defend coastal communities world wide.”
The 2 satellites make up the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission, the most recent in a sequence of ocean-observing radar altimetry missions which have monitored Earth’s altering seas because the early Nineties.
As with its predecessor, Sentinel-6B satellite tv for pc additionally will present key details about wind speeds, wave heights, atmospheric temperature, and humidity. Furthermore, as a result of water expands as its temperature will increase, researchers can inform which components of the ocean are hotter than others based mostly on the place the ocean floor peak is bigger.
Mixed with knowledge from different devices, that data can assist in forecasting marine climate, together with the event of hurricanes, which intensify with hotter water. Additionally, as a result of giant currents are taller than surrounding waters attributable to their greater temperatures, sea floor measurements can make clear interactions between the Gulf Stream, for instance, and close by waves. The place they meet, seas can develop into rougher, presenting a hazard to even the biggest ships.
“Sentinel-6B is a testomony to the worth of NASA’s partnership missions to place actionable satellite tv for pc data and science into the arms of decision-makers on the bottom,” stated Karen St. Germain, director, NASA Earth Science Division on the company’s headquarters. “Sentinel-6B will acquire ocean floor observations that may inform selections important to coastal communities, business transport and fishing, nationwide protection, and emergency preparedness and response. That is what NASA does — places superior know-how and science into motion for the advantage of the nation.”
When Sentinel-6B reaches its working elevation, the satellite tv for pc will fly about 30 seconds behind Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which carries similar science devices. As soon as the mission finishes cross-calibrating the info collected by the 2, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will transfer into a special orbit, and Sentinel-6B will take over the position of official reference satellite tv for pc, orbiting Earth about 13 instances a day at 830 miles (1,336 kilometers) above the floor.
“Sentinel-6B demonstrates the versatile Earth science purposes made potential by expertly engineered, space-based know-how. The satellite tv for pc’s highly effective suite of devices will measure about 90% of Earth’s oceans right down to fractions of an inch — persevering with so as to add to a significant dataset that America and a rising world neighborhood rely upon,” stated Dave Gallagher, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
Extra about Sentinel-6B
Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS is a collaboration between ESA, the European Union, EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA. French area company CNES (Centre Nationwide d’Études Spatiales) contributed technical assist. Copernicus, which incorporates the Sentinel missions, is the European Union’s Earth statement program led by the European Fee.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL contributed three science devices for every Sentinel-6 satellite tv for pc: the Superior Microwave Radiometer, the International Navigation Satellite tv for pc System – Radio Occultation, and the laser retroreflector array. NASA is also contributing launch companies, floor techniques supporting operation of the NASA science devices, the science knowledge processors for 2 of those devices, and assist for the U.S. members of the worldwide Ocean Floor Topography Science Workforce, and Sentinel-6 science groups.
To be taught extra about Sentinel-6B, go to:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/sentinel-6B/
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Elizabeth Vlock
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Andrew Wang / Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 626-840-4291
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
