NASA’s Launch Services Program, in collaboration with the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, is set to launch PREFIRE from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission falls under NASA’s Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) services contract. The PREFIRE initiative by NASA aims to provide valuable measurements of far-infrared wavelengths emitted from Earth’s poles. These measurements will enhance climate and weather models, aiding people worldwide to better adapt to the effects of climate change.
Tristan L’Ecuyer, the principal investigator for PREFIRE at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, highlighted the rapid changes occurring on our planet, particularly in regions like the Arctic. These changes are unprecedented and call for new ways to understand and respond to them. PREFIRE’s spectrometers provided by NASA JPL will be used in this joint effort between NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. CubeSats were built by Blue Canyon Technologies while data processing will be handled by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The launch services will be provided by Rocket Lab USA Inc located in Long Beach, California.
Interested individuals can learn more about the PREFIRE mission by visiting https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire/.
