New Scientist - USA (2022-02-19)

28 | New Scientist | 19 February 2022

Views Columnist

W

HEN we think about

space launches, we tend

to picture telescopes

and astronauts. We don’t tend

to think about farming. Yet on

1 March, a satellite is due to lift

off from Cape Canaveral in Florida,

and one of its main contributions

will be to help farmers work their

land more efficiently.

The Geostationary Operational

Environmental Satellite-T

(GOES-T, aka “ghost”), operated

by the US National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA), is the latest in a long line

of probes designed not to look out

to deep space, but back at Earth.

In this case, it is designed to better

understand how our atmosphere

works and how its activity is

shifting due to climate change.

Farmers will use the data

returned, for example, to figure

out precisely how much water

their crops need. The new satellite

will offer detailed information

about a phenomenon called

evapotranspiration, the process

through which water evaporates

from soil and plants and enters the

atmosphere. Seeing how much

evapotranspiration is occurring

on their land and comparing this

with the amount of water they

gave their crops, farmers can

calculate how much water those

plants used. The result is that

farmers can reduce water waste.

Of course, farmers aren’t

the only ones interested in the

weather. These days, we are all

getting used to increasingly

extreme weather events. Here

in New Hampshire, we don’t get

snow when we used to, and when

we do get it, it isn’t nearly as much

as in decades past. Oddly, the folks

south of us, where it is typically

warmer, are getting our snow.

Climate change is so dramatic

that we are all witnessing it in real

time, and I find what I’m seeing

stressful. Of course, our own

individual observations are

largely anecdotal. Our systematic

understanding of climate change

is coming from Indigenous

people, who know their local

ecosystems best, and from

scientific researchers who

study our global ecosystems.

Necessarily, this kind of

research not only uses ground-

based observations, but also

snapshots of the big picture from

space. GOES-T is ultimately a next-

generation weather satellite that

will orbit Earth at the same speed

that our planet rotates on its axis,

allowing it to remain stationary

relative to the surface and

continuously observe the Western

hemisphere. It is the latest in the

GOES-R series of satellites, which

creatively is comprised of GOES-R,

GOES-S, GOES-T, GOES-U. When it

comes to monitoring conditions

on Earth, all four satellites are

specifically equipped with the

capacity to take images in the

visible and infrared. This allows

NOAA, with the support of NASA,

to track major events such as

hurricanes, tornadoes, floods,

fires and volcanic eruptions like

the one that recently caused a

disastrous tsunami in Tonga.

But Earth’s weather isn’t the

only weather GOES-T will be

tracking. All satellites in the

GOES-R series are also able

to take images of the sun and

monitor space weather, which

is what we call the collection

of phenomena that impact

conditions in our solar system.

For example, the sun has

powerful magnetic fields that

can, ultimately, affect technology

here on Earth. Solar flares

associated with these fields, and

mass ejections that are often

associated with them, can be

seriously disruptive, damaging

power supplies, GPS and radio

communications. They are also

a risk to space facilities such as

the International Space Station.

Earlier this month, the orbits

of around 40 Starlink satellites,

which provide internet access,

failed because of the impact of

space weather on the atmosphere.

The sun also spits out high-energy

particles known as the solar wind,

which, when they interact with

Earth’s magnetic field, produce

beautiful night sky colours. These

dancing glows are the auroras

that can be seen near the poles.

GOES-T’s specialised

instruments help us track all

these phenomena. Here at the

University of New Hampshire,

my colleague James Connell, a

professor in the department of

physics and in our world-class

Space Science Center, is heavily

involved in the development of

the GOES-T Energetic Heavy Ion

Sensor. This will measure heavy

ions flung out by the sun that fly

through Earth’s magnetic field and

will contribute to getting a global

picture of the energetic particle

climate that envelops our world

and affects both our spacecraft

and life on the ground.

This sort of work doesn’t tend

to get much attention, and yet it

is important because it is only by

developing these instruments that

we can gather the information

we need. The painstaking work

behind these kinds of craft, as

much as the headline-grabbing

launches of the rockets that carry

the satellites, is critical to living

well here on Earth. ❚

“ We can track

major events,

such as hurricanes,

tornadoes, floods,

fires and volcanic

eruptions”

Do look down We shouldn’t only celebrate spacecraft staring

out at the universe, but also those turned on Earth, helping us live

better on our own planet, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Field notes from space-time

This column appears

monthly. Up next week:

Graham Lawton

What I’m reading

Jessica Hernandez’s Fresh

Banana Leaves: Healing

Indigenous landscapes

through Indigenous

science is an important

intervention.

What I’m watching

We are pretty into The

Gilded Age right now.

What I’m working on

I just wrapped up

edits on the paperback

edition of my book The

Disordered Cosmos.

Chanda’s week

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

is an assistant professor

of physics and astronomy,

and a core faculty member

in women’s studies at the

University of New Hampshire.

Her research in theoretical

physics focuses on cosmology,

neutron stars and particles

beyond the standard model