Climate Scientists Breathe Easier After Launch

摘要

When NASA's Glory climate-monitoring spacecraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean due to launch failure in March 2011, scientists were concerned they would have no way to prevent a lengthy gap in their observations of solar energy, the primary driver of Earth's climate. Glory's Total Irradiance Monitor instrument was designed to measure solar energy reaching Earth and extend a record of solar energy data spanning more than 30 years. "When we lost the Glory mission, it sent a chill down everybody's spine because we thought there was going to have an imminent gap in that data record," said Jeff Privette of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Those concerns were put to rest Nov. 19 when the Total solar irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE), an instrument designed to measure solar light in all wavelengths, traveled into orbit as one of six payloads on the U.S. Air Force Space Test Program 3 satellite that launched along with 28 secondary payloads on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 1 rocket that lifted off from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.