NASA’s newest climate mission has begun collecting data on the amount of heat in the form of far-infrared radiation that the Arctic and Antarctic environments radiate into space. These polar radiation energy measurements, made by the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE), are key to better predicting how climate change will affect Earth’s ice, seas, and weather—information that will help humanity better prepare for a changing world.

One of PREFIRE’s two shoebox-sized cube satellites, or CubeSats, launched from New Zealand on May 25, followed by its twin satellite on June 5. The first CubeSat began sending back science data on July 1. A second CubeSat began collecting science data on July 25, and the mission will broadcast data after a problem with the GPS system on the CubeSat is resolved.

The PREFIRE mission will help researchers better understand when and where the Arctic and Antarctic emit far-infrared radiation (wavelengths greater than 15 micrometers) into space, which is how atmospheric water vapor and clouds affect the amount of heat leaving the Earth.

Because clouds and water vapor can trap far-infrared radiation close to the Earth’s surface, they can increase global temperatures in a process known as the greenhouse effect. This is where gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor, act as insulators, preventing the heat radiated by the planet from escaping into space.

“We are constantly looking for new ways to observe the planet and fill critical gaps in our knowledge. With CubeSats like PREFIRE, we are doing both,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission, part of our competitively selected Earth Venture program, is an excellent example of the innovative science we can achieve by collaborating with university and industry partners.”

Earth absorbs most of the sun’s energy in the tropics; air and ocean currents carry this heat to the Arctic and Antarctic, which receive much less sunlight. The polar environment, which includes ice, snow, and clouds, radiates much of this heat back into space, mostly in the form of far-infrared radiation. But these emissions have never been systematically measured, and that’s where PREFIRE comes to the rescue.

“It’s very exciting to watch the data come in,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, PREFIRE’s principal investigator and a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “With the addition of PREFIRE’s far-infrared measurements, for the first time we are seeing the full spectrum of energy that Earth is radiating into space, which is critical for understanding climate change.”

This visualization of PREFIRE data shows the brightness temperature, or intensity, of radiation emitted from Earth at various wavelengths, including the far-infrared region. Yellow and red indicate more intense emissions originating from the Earth’s surface, while blue and green represent lower-intensity emissions corresponding to cooler regions on the surface or in the atmosphere.

The visualization begins by showing data on mid-infrared radiation (wavelengths between 4 and 15 micrometers) obtained by the first CubeSat during several polar orbits in early July. It then approaches two passes over Greenland. The orbital tracks are expanded vertically to show how infrared radiation in the atmosphere varies. The visualization ends by focusing on the region where the two passes intersect, showing how the intensity of far-infrared radiation varies during the nine hours between the two orbits.

The two PREFIRE CubeSats are in asynchronous, near-polar orbits, meaning they fly over the same locations in the Arctic and Antarctica within a few hours of each other and collect the same data. This gives researchers a time-series of measurements they can use to study relatively short-term events, such as ice sheet melting or cloud formation, and how these affect far-infrared radiation over time.