NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission has been extended through September 2026 and is broadening its focus from Earth’s poles to the entire globe. The mission’s two shoebox-size CubeSats gauge the capacity of water vapor, clouds, and other elements of Earth’s system to trap heat and keep it from radiating into space. This information can help improve forecasts, including weather severity and storm frequency.
Launched in spring 2024, PREFIRE has been measuring how much heat the planet emits into space from the Arctic and Antarctic. Earth absorbs a significant amount of the Sun’s energy in the tropics. Winds, weather, and ocean currents transport that heat toward the poles, which receive much less sunlight. Ice, snow, and clouds, among other parts of the polar environment, emit some of that heat into space, much of it as far-infrared radiation. The difference between the amount of heat Earth absorbs at the tropics and radiates out from the Arctic and Antarctic is a key influence on the planet’s temperature, helping to drive dynamic systems of climate and weather.
At the core of the mission is a pair of advanced spectrometers designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. They measure wavelengths of light in the far-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and are sensitive to 10 times more far-infrared wavelengths than any similar instrument. This information gives researchers insight into processes associated with surface ice melt and formation, snowmelt and accumulation, and changes in cloud cover.
CCR faculty member Tristan L’Ecuyer is the principal investigator of the PREFIRE project.
Read the full article at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-prefire-cubesat-mission-extended/