Who Killed the Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite? [New]
In case you missed this excellent story from Popular Science, a whodunit involving (one hears) Mr. Cheney vs Mr. Gore:
It all began so hopefully. Al Gore proposed the satellite in 1998, at the National Innovation Summit at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gazing skyward from the podium, the vice president described a spacecraft that would travel a full million miles from Earth to a gravity-neutral spot known as the L1 Lagrangian point, where it would remain fixed in place, facing the sunlit half of our planet. It would stream back to NASA video of our spherical home, and the footage would be broadcast continuously over the Web.
Not only would the satellite provide “a clearer view of our world,” Gore promised, but it would also offer “tremendous scientific value” by carrying into space two instruments built to study climate change: EPIC, a polychromatic imaging camera made to measure cloud reflectivity and atmospheric levels of aerosols, ozone and water vapor; and NISTAR, a radiometer. NISTAR was especially important: Out in deep space, it would do something that scientists are still unable to do today directly and continuously monitor the Earth’s albedo, or the amount of solar energy that our planet reflects into space versus the amount it absorbs.
We know some things about the Earth’s albedo. We know that solar radiation is both absorbed and reflected everywhere on Earth, by granite mountaintops in New Hampshire and desert dunes in Saudi Arabia. We know that cloud cover also reflects some of it. We also know that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are currently causing the planet to retain more solar energy than it once did. But there is much we don’t know, because we don’t have a way to directly and constantly monitor albedo on a global scale—that is, to directly observe a key indicator of global warming.
Bonus: now you know two new words, Lagrangian point and albedo. More seriously, the DSCOVR project even if launched, could not be guaranteed to be launched, as happened recently with another climate satellite that crashed during launch.
What Do You Think?
6 Responses to 'Who Killed the Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite?'
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Mark [New]
Saturday, 9 Apr, 2011 at 8:30 pm
jlars [New]
Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 7:54 am
I knew those words already. Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!
Its a real bummer to see news like this and somehow its also become less than surprising. I also read in the NY Times that banks aren’t going to be held accountable for their false documents for foreclosures and that The Supreme Court just dismantled another part of the separation of church and state… Sigh :(
Does anyone have ANY good news? Anything!?
Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 8:26 am
We’re alive?
Interesting on the banks not being held accountable: why not post a Quick Hit? That’s big news and it’s been anticipated, one way or the other, for awhile now. I assume it’s the MERS story Taibbi has covered in depth, specifically how banks used MERS to defraud US counties of billions in real estate transaction fees as well as grease the skids to pump and dump mortgages into collateralized debt.
jlars [New]
Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 8:39 am
We are indeed alive.
I hadn’t even thought about a quick hits for that, but hey, why not? I should get more in the habit of doing that kind of stuff. Thanks for the nudge.
jlars [New]
Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 8:47 am
Okay, now it quick hits. Hopefully I’ve done all the formatting etc. correctly.
Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 9:42 am
Perfect, thank you! Interesting that the current political elites and their sponsors have a neat way of absconding with things and breaking laws then arranging to be above the law. You wonder what Federal prosecutors think?