An upcoming NASA mission will provide an unprecedented glimpse into ice clouds at high altitudes in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s Polarized Submillimeter Ice Cloud Radiometer (PolSIR) is an instrument designed to study ice clouds that form above Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions. A pair of these relatively inexpensive sensors will be mounted on two small satellites and launched into low Earth orbit, where they will collect data on how the ice clouds change throughout the day. This data will help scientists better understand how these ice clouds are responding to climate change and how they may affect our climate in the future.

“Studying ice clouds is crucial to improving climate forecasts – and this will be the first time we’ve been able to study ice clouds in such detail,” said Nicola Fox, deputy director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ..

Equipment for the mission is two identical pairs of radiometers that will measure electromagnetic radiation from clouds. Radiometers will record infrared radiation at two different frequencies: 325 and 680 gigahertz. Each pair of radiometers will travel on a cube satellite, a mini-satellite just over a foot long. The two Cubesats will orbit every three to nine hours, allowing them to continuously collect data on ice clouds for 24 hours.

Karen St., head of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division. “Radiometers that measure the radiant energy emitted by clouds will greatly improve our understanding of how ice clouds change and respond throughout the day,” Germain said in a statement.

PolSIR is part of the class of NASA missions World Initiative, relatively inexpensive task groups for exploring the Earth and improving our ability to predict future changes. Earth Venture assignments are selected through open competitive grant applications. Presented by a group from Vanderbilt University, the PolSIR team will receive a $37 million grant to cover operating costs (excluding startup costs). Ralph Bennartz, head of Vanderbilt’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, will lead the mission with Dong Wu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

This mission joins many other Earth-focused NASA missions, including the recently launched experiment. TROPICS and duty TEMPO, both Earth Venture missions. in the first climate change summits In December 2022, NASA highlighted several Earth science missions that will help us understand the many effects of climate change on our planet. According to a statement from Vanderbilt University, PolSIR is scheduled to launch in 2027 if all goes according to plan.