Mary-Louise Hoffman
NASA will deploy an ocean winds sensor technology in space with the goal of helping scientists predict storms as well as study changes in the weather.
The agency expects to send the ISS-RapidScat instrument aboard a SpaceX capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida no earlier than Sept. 19, NASA said Monday.
ISS-RapidScat is meant to be mounted on the space station’s exterior and aid climate forecasting.
NASA also intends to launch the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System through a SpaceX resupply mission flight to the ISS in December.
CATS employs a laser remote-sensing instrument that is designed to measure clouds and monitor the distribution of atmospheric particulates such as mineral dust, smoke and pollutants, according to the space agency.
“With the space station we don’t have to build a spacecraft to gather new data — it’s already there,†said Stephen Volz, associate director of flight programs for NASA’s Earth science division.
“The orbit enables rare, cross-disciplinary observations when the station flies under another sensor on a satellite,” Volz added.
NASA is slated to launch two more Earth-observation instruments to the ISS during 2016, namely the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III and the Lightning Imaging Sensor.
The agency says it expects to complete development work on a laser-based forest ecosystem mapping platform and a multiple wavelength thermal imaging spectrometer before the end of the decade.
