NASA’s PREFIRE Mission: Studying Earth’s Heat Emissions and Monitoring Polar Climate Change
NASA's PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission has successfully launched the first of two climate satellites designed to study heat emissions from Earth's polar regions. The satellite lifted off on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand, at 7:41 p.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.
PREFIRE Mission Overview
The PREFIRE mission consists of two CubeSats, each the size of a shoebox, tasked with measuring the amount of heat radiated from Earth's poles into space. These CubeSats will provide critical data to help researchers predict changes in Earth's ice, seas, and weather patterns in a warming world. The mission aims to fill a significant gap in our understanding of how the polar regions influence the planet’s energy budge...