NASA to launch satellite today for measuring Earth’s natural features

NASA will launch a new satellite today in order to measure the height of natural features including ice, forests, oceans and clouds on Earth.

Later on Saturday, space agency NASA will launch its Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), which is aimed at gathering extremely precise measurements and assisting researchers to calculate the height of natural features on Earth.

NASA said, “Retreating glaciers. Shrinking sea ice. Melting ice sheets. The frozen reaches of Earth are changing at dramatic rates. And the impacts, from sea level rise to altered weather patterns, span the planet.”

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Engadget reported, with the help of a huge on-board space laser, the satellite is set to measure changes in Earth’s ice across seasons and years. ICESat-2 is equipped with Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) that will send back pulses of laser light to Earth along with recording the time laser light’s photons take to bounce back to the satellite. The data can then be transformed into a measure of height.

ATLAS will fire 10,000 pulses per second six-beam laser, each pulse containing about 20 trillion photons. Of them, only a dozen or so will make it back up to the satellite, a trip that will take around only 3.3 milliseconds. The satellite will complete a full orbit around our planet every three months, allowing it to collect measurements every season.

ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch at 05:46AM Pacific Time on Saturday, September 15. It will be launched from California aboard a Delta II rocket, as per CNET.