BBC Sky at Night - UK (2021-08)

40 BBC Sky at Night Magazine August 2021

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A combined approach

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Some of the key missions helping to keep track of

the planet’s vital stats across land, air and sea

Monitoring Earth’s climate

TEMPO, NASA & Smithsonian

Astrophysical Observatory

The Tropospheric Emissions:

Monitoring of Pollution

(TEMPO) instrument will

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satellite and measure the daily

variations in air quality over

North America. Expected to

launch in 2022, it will assess

concentrations of ozone,

nitrogen dioxide, sulphur

dioxide and other chemicals

from a geostationary orbit to

track emissions and improve

air-quality forecasts.

GRACE-FO, NASA &

German Research Centre

for Geosciences

The Gravity Recovery and

Climate Experiment Follow-On

mission is a pair of satellites

launched in 2018 to monitor

Earth’s water. GRACE-FO

picks up where GRACE left

off, providing an indication

of climate variability by

measuring small changes in

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correspond to the amount of

water in lakes, rivers, oceans,

ice sheets and the ground.

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Europe’s growing stable of

Earth-monitoring satellites

currently comprises six

missions (Sentinel-1, -2, -3,

-4, -5P and -6), but will grow

over the coming years with

the launches of Sentinel 5 and

further expansion missions,

including OCO-2. Monitoring

everything from soil moisture,

water quality and land cover

to surface temperature, sea

level, air quality and pollution,

they provide key information

on Earth’s changing climate.

Suomi NPP, NASA

Launched in 2011, the Suomi

National Polar-orbiting

Partnership (Suomi NPP)

satellite collects a range of

data to improve weather

forecasting and provide

insights into climate change.

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monitor changes in vegetation

productivity, atmospheric

ozone, sea and land surface

temperatures, as well as

monitoring glaciers, sea ice,

land ice and natural disasters

around the world.

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satellites are currently in

orbit, with more joining

them to assess CO 2 levels

>

ILLU

STR

ATI

ON

GRACE-FO

ICESat-2

CYGNSS

(EVM-1)

DSCOVR

(NOAA)

Landsat 8

(USGS)

OCO-2

SMAP

Suomi NPP

(NOAA)

SORCE

Aqua

Aura

CALIPSO

CloudSat

Te r r a

Landsat 7

(USGS)

International

Space Station

instruments:

LIS

SAGE III

TSIS-1

ECOSTRESS

GEDI

OCO-3

CryoSat

SMOS

MetOp

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AEOLUS

Proba-V

GPM Core
Observatory

TEMPO

ERS-2