NASA’s PREFIRE Mission

Why in News ?  : Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket recently  lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand  carrying a small satellite for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.

About  the Pre Fire Mission :

• NASA’s Pre-Fire Mission, also referred to as the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment, is a recently launched mission designed to study Earth’s poles.
• It utilizes two CubeSats, which are tiny satellites about the size of a shoebox, to measure the amount of heat radiating from Earth into space, particularly focusing on the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Significance of the  Mission:

• Understanding these measurements is crucial for improving climate models and making predictions about how a warming planet will affect sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise.
• This mission is significant because nearly 60% of the Arctic’s heat emission occurs at wavelengths that have never been systematically measured before.
• The data collected by PREFIRE will fill this gap in our knowledge and improve the accuracy of climate models.
• The two CubeSats were launched in May 2024 and are designed for a mission lasting around 10 months.
• They are in near-polar orbits at an altitude of 470 to 650 kilometers. Each CubeSat carries a miniaturized infrared spectrometer that can measure infrared wavelengths between 0 and 45 micrometers.