This month, in May, NASA is launching two rockets to help with climate data and improve it. This mission is called PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment), and it is expected to launch at least after or on May 22, 2024.

An Electron Rocket from the Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand will launch the first cubesat. Within three weeks, the second cubesat will be launched on another Electron Rocket. Both cubesats include a thermal infrared spectrometer which has also been flown on other rockets. This spectrometer was only resized to fit the cubesat. It can collect information from far infrared wavelengths, which are at least 15 microns, equaling 15-millionths of a meter, at the Earth’s North and South poles. The data that will be collected from the two cubesats will provide helpful information on how much heat the Earth is losing at the poles to space. This information will help improve climate models.

“The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. That has huge potential consequences,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, the main investigator for PREFIRE. These consequences can be both global and local, including sea level rise and larger weather systems. PREFIRE will be able to make the first measurements of radiant heat from the North and South poles, allowing scientists to understand the processes in the polar regions, humidity in the atmosphere, and the changing surfaces, such as ice surfaces to liquid surfaces. All of these measurements can be done with only one cubesat, but two cubesats were sent out for extra measurements. One cubesat can map the emission in the polar regions, but having an extra cubesat can help understand how changes such as ice sheets melting, cloud formations, or the increase of the amount of moisture in the atmosphere affect these emissions.