The Heavens

PACE - A Unique and Useful Satellite

Photo credit: NASA (pace.oceansciences.org/mission.htm)

While unbalanced moonlanders grabbed media attention last month, the successful launch of NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite into low-earth, polar orbit on February 8th has failed to attract attention.

PACE’s mission is multifaceted — to improve our understanding of the ocean’s global carbon cycle and ecosystem by measuring the ocean’s colors; to collect global observations of aerosol/cloud properties and reduce uncertainties in climate models for the Earth’s weather system; and, to improve our comprehension of the interaction between earth’s atmosphere and the ocean’s biologic and chemical cycles.

To accomplish these assignments, the craft sports an Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) capable of measuring color from ultraviolet to shortwave infrared and two polarimeters for observing how the oscillation of sunlight within geometric plane (polarization) changes while passing through clouds, aerosols, and the ocean.

It has been said we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about our oceans. In the ten years PACE is expected to gather data, researchers will be in a position to help rectify this imbalance and, in the process, be able to better address solutions to rapid climate changes threatening the entire world.