Final Preparations for OSTM’s June 15 Launching
“Globally, on average, sea levels are rising,” said Steven Neek of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, in a Tuesday briefing. “This is a complex phenomenon which we need to understand better through flying new spacecraft.”
The French Space Agency CNES spacecraft has joined hands with NASA for the development of OSTM, or the Ocean Surface Topography Mission spacecraft, designed to carry-on an ongoing survey of the Earth’s oceans —studying ocean circulation and its effects on weather, climate and the Earth’s response to global change on climate.
With a launching date of June 15, the new Jason 2 spacecraft will be atop of the Delta 2 rocket launching from California’s Vandenberg Air Force base. “Globally, on average, sea levels are rising,” said Steven Neek of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, in a Tuesday briefing. “This is a complex phenomenon which we need to understand better through flying new spacecraft.”
The fact is, the world’s sea levels have risen quite a bit since 1993, twice the rate that was expected, with natural and human-made causes being responsible, according to NASA officials. At a rate of 3 millimeters per year, it has raised about 0.12 inches annually. Tracking global sea levels is the reason for this third satellite it its series with its predecessor being Jason I, which is still operating today. Another joint-effort satellite launched in 1992—TOPEX/Poseidon—which scanned the oceans on Earth for 13 years.
At a price of $433 million dollars, Jason II will orbit in tandem with its predecessor, Jason I, covering approximately 830 miles above Earth. The OSTM mission managers are planning on twice as much coverage, with ocean altimetry just one of the many tools used to measure the ocean’s height—with their accuracy within 1.3 inches.
Other participants are involved with the Jason 2 project, including the NOAA and EUMETSAT, with researchers hoping to connect the satellite’s data with the international forecasting agencies. What will result from this venture will be better future predictions about the world’s ocean circulation fluctuations, climate changes, and the continuously changing and more violet weather patterns.
“People in coastal areas will benefit from improved near-real-time data on ocean conditions, while people everywhere will benefit from better seasonal predictions resulting from the increased understanding of Earth system processes enabled by these measurements,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division of NASA’s science directorate.
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