OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dixit:

“ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2), part of NASA’s Earth Observing System, is a planned satellite mission for measuring ice sheet elevation, sea ice freeboard as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics. ICESat-2 is a planned follow-on to the ICESat mission. It will be launched in 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular, near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 496 km. It is being designed to operate for 3 years, and will carry enough propellant for 7 years.

The ICESat-2 mission is designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as vegetation canopy information. It will provide topography measurements of cities, lakes and reservoirs, oceans and land surfaces around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage.

The ICESat-2 project is being managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The sole instrument is being designed and built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the bus is being provided by Orbital ATK. The satellite will launch on a Delta II rocket provided by United Launch Alliance. As of November 2017 this is the last planned launch of the Delta ll launch vehicle.

The sole instrument on ICESat-2 will be the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a space-based LIDAR. ATLAS will time the flight of laser photons from the satellite to Earth and back; computer programs will use the travel time from multiple pulses to determine elevation. The ATLAS laser will emit visible laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. The laser is being developed and built by Fibertek, Inc. As ICESat-2 orbits, the ATLAS will generate six beams arranged in three pairs, with the pairs 3.3 km apart, in order to better determine the surface’s slope and provide more ground coverage. ATLAS will take elevation measurements every 70 cm along the satellite’s ground path. The laser will fire at a rate of 10 kHz. Each pulse sends out about 20 trillion photons, almost all of which are dispersed or deflected as the pulse travels to Earth’s surface and bounces back to the satellite. About a dozen photons from each pulse return to the instrument and are collected in a beryllium telescope.”

Music: “Cristal Delight,” Fred Dubois, Killer Tracks

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer

Kate Ramsayer (Telophase Corp.): Lead Writer

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Writer

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Animator

Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator

Thorsten Markus (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist

Thomas A. Neumann Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Editor

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Narrator

Jefferson Beck (USRA): Lead Videographer

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Visualizer

John Caldwell (AIMM): Lead Videographer

Chris Meaney (KBRwyle): Lead Animator

Video credit: NASA Goddard

Wikipedia dixit:

“ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2), part of NASA’s Earth Observing System, is a planned satellite mission for measuring ice sheet elevation, sea ice freeboard as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics. ICESat-2 is a planned follow-on to the ICESat mission. It will be launched in 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular, near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 496 km. It is being designed to operate for 3 years, and will carry enough propellant for 7 years.

The ICESat-2 mission is designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as vegetation canopy information. It will provide topography measurements of cities, lakes and reservoirs, oceans and land surfaces around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage.

The ICESat-2 project is being managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The sole instrument is being designed and built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the bus is being provided by Orbital ATK. The satellite will launch on a Delta II rocket provided by United Launch Alliance. As of November 2017 this is the last planned launch of the Delta ll launch vehicle.

The sole instrument on ICESat-2 will be the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a space-based LIDAR. ATLAS will time the flight of laser photons from the satellite to Earth and back; computer programs will use the travel time from multiple pulses to determine elevation. The ATLAS laser will emit visible laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. The laser is being developed and built by Fibertek, Inc. As ICESat-2 orbits, the ATLAS will generate six beams arranged in three pairs, with the pairs 3.3 km apart, in order to better determine the surface’s slope and provide more ground coverage. ATLAS will take elevation measurements every 70 cm along the satellite’s ground path. The laser will fire at a rate of 10 kHz. Each pulse sends out about 20 trillion photons, almost all of which are dispersed or deflected as the pulse travels to Earth’s surface and bounces back to the satellite. About a dozen photons from each pulse return to the instrument and are collected in a beryllium telescope.”

Music: “Cristal Delight,” Fred Dubois, Killer Tracks

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer

Kate Ramsayer (Telophase Corp.): Lead Writer

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Writer

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Animator

Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator

Thorsten Markus (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist

Thomas A. Neumann Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Editor

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Narrator

Jefferson Beck (USRA): Lead Videographer

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Visualizer

John Caldwell (AIMM): Lead Videographer

Chris Meaney (KBRwyle): Lead Animator

Video credit: NASA Goddard

NASA dixit:

“As wildfires burn across California, NASA satellites help gather data about where the fires are and how smoke travels across the state. The smoke from the fires is even visible a million miles away from Earth, captured by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR).

The Terra spacecraft can see fires in both daylight and at night, helping aid firefighters in tracking and stopping the blazes. NASA’s unique vantage point in space helps better understand our home planet.”

Music: Seven by Andrea Sacco [SACEM]

Video credit: NASA

ESA dixit:

“Replay of the Sentinel-5P liftoff on a Rockot from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 09:27 GMT (11:27 CEST) on 13 October 2017.

Sentinel-5P – the ‘P’ standing for ‘Precursor’ – is the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere. The satellite carries the state-of-the-art Tropomi instrument to map a multitude of trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and aerosols – all of which affect the air we breathe and therefore our health, and our climate.”

Video credit: ESA