NASA launches a small satellite intended to observe the heat released into space

It’s a first. A small NASA satellite intended to measure for the first time in detail heat loss into space via the earth’s poles took off on Saturday May 25 from New Zealand. This mission, called PREFIRE, should notably make it possible to improve scientists’ forecasts related to climate change.

The satellite, the size of a shoebox, was launched by an Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab company, departing from Mahia. A similar satellite will be launched by the same company later. Both will be used to make far-infrared measurements over the Arctic and Antarctic, to directly quantify the heat released into space for the first time.

Thanks to PREFIRE, NASA wants to understand how clouds, humidity or even the transformation of a frozen surface into liquid influence this heat loss. This phenomenon of loss is “crucial, because it helps balance the excess heat received from tropical regions and regulate the earth’s temperature”explained to AFP Tristan L’Ecuyer, scientific manager of the mission at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.