NASA plans to launch a highly technical atmosphere-monitoring satellite on Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.The project is the third and final installation of the agency’s Earth Observing System.
The 6,542-pound, $785 million spacecraft would monitor the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere, tracking levels of stratospheric and troposphere ozone, chlorofluorocarbon, chlorine, carbon dioxide, water vapor and other potentially harmful gases and pollutants, as well as radiation from the Earth and its atmosphere.
The satellite, named Aura, could be in orbit for at least the next six years. Aura would eventually join a fleet of international satellites directed to scan the Earth’s entire surface and monitor global climate change.
Earlier this month G8 leaders agreed to a plan calling for improved coordination of global earth system observation strategies. Since the Evian summit, there have been two high-level meetings on EOS, including a 2003 Earth Observation Summit in Washington.
In late April, high-ranking representatives from 47 countries and the European Commission met in Tokyo to discuss a framework document for a 10-year implementation plan for the system.The system, formally known as the “Global Earth Observation System of Systems,” could result in improved monsoon season forecasts, better prediction of droughts and floods, and an influx of climate data that could be used to assess short- and long-term changes in atmospheric trends.
A third summit is slated next year for Brussels & Belgium. It will be hosted by the European Commission. The goal of that meeting is to complete and finalize the 10-year implementation plan.
