A rocket carrying a sophisticated satellite blasted off Tuesday from California on a mission to investigate what role clouds could play in the fight against climate change.
“Tonight’s launch is a reminder that space is not only about exploring distant galaxies and planets. It is about understanding our beautiful but fragile Earth,” ESA Director Josef Aschbacher said in a video posted Tuesday on social media.Their composition depends on where they are located in the troposphere, Earth’s lowest layer of atmosphere, explained Dominique Gillieron, head of the ESA’s Earth observation projects department.
The troposphere starts at around eight kilometers above the polar regions, but near the equator it begins at around 18 kilometers up. This means that clouds affect the climate differently depending on their altitude and latitude. EarthCARE will become the first satellite to measure both the vertical and horizontal distribution of clouds, she told a press conference.One of them, involving light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, will use a laser pulse to measure both clouds and aerosols, which are tiny particles such as dust, pollen or human-emitted pollutants like smoke or ash.The satellite’s radar will pierce through the clouds to measure how much water they contain, and track cloud speed.