Who knew you could see plankton from space? NASA, of course. the space agency successfully launched A new mission called PACE, short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem satellite, was launched today and will study its namesake.
It will examine plants and microscopic particles (things so small they are invisible to the naked eye) from hundreds of kilometers above Earth. The goal is to better understand how such tiny things can affect the entire planet.
“PACE will help us learn, like never before, how particles in our atmosphere and oceans can identify key factors that impact global warming,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release.
The goal is to better understand how such tiny things can affect the entire planet.
Phytoplankton in particular play a vital role in the world's oceans. NASA even has an entertaining video on YouTube about why they are “incredibly important” complete with fake action figures of the “microscopic warriors fighting across the sea.” What the video calls “phytocombatants” are actually microscopic plants that absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis. It is that ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide that makes them a key ally in the fight against climate change.
“PACE observations and scientific research will profoundly advance our understanding of the ocean's role in the climate cycle,” Karen St. Germain, director of the earth sciences division in the Science Mission Directorate, said in the news release. from NASA headquarters.
Plankton also form the base of ocean food chains, making them extremely important for the health of marine ecosystems and fisheries. There are tens of thousands of different species of phytoplankton, and each has unique interactions with its environment: some beneficial and others potentially harmful, such as toxic algae blooms called red tides.
While red tide is an extreme example, different types of phytoplankton can make the sea surface appear different colors, albeit in ways that are often too subtle for the human eye to detect.
The hyperspectral ocean color instrument carried by the PACE satellite will make observations in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light spectrums. This will allow scientists to differentiate between phytoplankton species by their unique color for the first time from space. They can use that data to discover what types of organisms exist and detect changes in the sea that could affect ecosystems and the coastal communities that depend on them.
Two other instruments aboard the spacecraft will study particles in the atmosphere, specifically aerosols that can affect air quality. “Aerosols are really important for human health, so we need to really quantify what's out there, like what kind of aerosols are there and where they come from,” says Meng Gao, polarimetry data science and software leader, in another article. of PACE. NASA video published in December.
The funny thing is that decades of work cleaning up aerosol pollution has been a double-edged sword. Aerosol particles and some of the clouds that can form around them can reflect solar radiation back into space. This way there will be fewer aerosols in the atmosphere could inadvertently accelerate global warming. Two toaster-sized instruments at PACE are called polarimeters, and they can detect what types of aerosols are present based on how they reflect light. Knowing what types of aerosols exist can help scientists refine climate models so they can make more accurate forecasts for the future.
There are also a couple of science fiction-sounding scenarios that this type of research could one day support. There have been some early study in ways to potentially increase carbon dioxide uptake by phytoplankton by providing them with more nutrients. There have also been headlines lately about a startup's dishonest attempts to release aerosols into the atmosphere to try to stop global warming.
The startup quickly faced backlash, including the Mexican government banning its experiments, due to the potential planetary consequences of attempting to deliberately manipulate Earth's atmosphere. Messing with the oceans and atmosphere in this way falls into the realm of so-called geoengineering, which still faces stiff opposition from researchers and environmental advocates concerned about unintended consequences.
The PACE satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:33 a.m. ET on Thursday.
