Satellite That Predicts Climate Change About to Launch
British scientists are preparing to launch a revolutionary satellite that will provide precise measurements of the earth’s gravitational field, which will in turn provide exact measurements of ocean currents. So why is that important? Well, ocean currents transport heat around the planet— and that means that the currents have a huge impact on the earth’s climate.
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The €330 million satellite will map the planet’s gravitational field once every 70 days for 18 months. It will orbit at a low altitude—160 miles—in order to measure tiny gravitational fluctuations.
Expect the satellite to be in orbit in the next two weeks. And if you happen to be at the Plesetsk cosmodrome near Moscow, you can even watch it launch.
I do wonder about the practical applications of the satellite besides the knowledge of which areas of the world are about to be clobbered by global warming. Still, even that is useful, as people in affected regions will be able to prepare for what lies ahead. And maybe it will once and for all prove to global warming deniers that climate change isn’t a farce.
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Very cool, I hope it does turn out to be practical/helpful. When I saw this I immediately thought of climateprediction.net, a distributed computing project to handle all the huge amounts of climate data. Perhaps these two projects could work together?
Sounds to me like this might be the satellite to watch!
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
Why no mention of the name of the satellite in either the post or the article it was linked to?
GOCE is the answer.
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/ESAYEK1VMOC_LPgoce_0.html
And its being launched by ESA (which GB is a member of), though I’m sure GB scientists have had a lot to do with it…
This is great. I hope its accurate.
In the scientific method, one does not “hope” for a particular result. One develops a hypothesis and then tests it, recording data for analysis. One then draws conclusions from the data analysis. A scentist does not hope for a result but interprets the data wherever it may lead. My hope is that the scientific method is followed not a political agenda. As the author writes,”And maybe it will once and for all prove to global warming deniers that climate change isn’t a farce.” True scientists don’t work on hope and maybe. They observe, analyze, and report facts. To paraphrase, there’s no “hoping” in the scientific method.
Thanks for this - definitely be interesting to see what it comes up with.
“And maybe it will once and for all prove to global warming deniers that climate change isn’t a farce.”
The climate changing, and that we have an impact on the planet, is not a farce; however many of the perceived problems and proposed solutions are indeed farcical.