New satellite launched to measure Earth's melting ice with "unprecedented precision"

NASA says its recently launched ice, cloud and land elevation satellite will measure the Earth's melting ice with "unprecedented accuracy" thanks to an advanced laser system.

The US Space Agency launched ICESat-2 on September 15th at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite's advanced topographic laser altimeter system – its only tool – is expected to be activated next week after the first spacecraft tests in space have been completed.

Once this is done, NASA says it will begin its work by measuring changes in the polar ice caps, updating ice-melt forecasts, and helping scientists understand how this loss of ice affects the ocean. and the atmosphere.

The space agency has presented its recently launched satellite as being able to record a change in height in the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica up to the width of a pencil.

"With this mission, we continue to explore the distant polar regions of our planet and better understand how the current changes in land ice cover at the poles and elsewhere will affect lives in the world, now and in the future," he said. Thomas Zurbuchen. Associate Administrator of NASA's Scientific Missions Directorate, said in a press release.

"We are really looking forward to making this data available to the scientific community as quickly as possible so that we can begin to explore what ICESat-2 can tell us about our complex planet."

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This mission – hence the "-2" part of its name – follows ICESat, which ran from 2003 to 2009. Past data and all future registrations will be shared with the public on this link .

The ICESat-2 laser will be able to fire 10,000 times per second, an increase over 40 times per second.

"If ICESat-2 flies over a football field, it would take 130 measurements between the end zones, his predecessor would have taken a measure in each end zone," NASA said.

"The ICESat-2 rapid-ignition laser, coupled with the instrument's time accuracy, sensitive photon sensing technology and other features, will enable the ICESat-2 mission to measure change average annual

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