NASAÂ is looking to use small satellites for a program that the space agency hopes will help scientists depict global warming using computer models, Mashable reported Friday.
Andrew Freedman writes that Goddard Space Flight Center researchers will work to test a 874-gigahertz submillimeter-wave receiver by using the IceCube nanosatellites in order to study high-altitude ice clouds.
The agency plans to launch the IceCube satellite along with other CubeSats within the next two years in order to help scientists identify the challenges in middle to upper troposphere observation missions, according to the report.
Freedman writes that ice clouds become invisible from infrared and visible sensors in these regions of 20,000-to-35,000 feet in altitude.
“We’re maturing technology to make it more ready for spaceflight in the future,” Jeff Piepmeier, associate head of Goddard’s Microwave Instruments and Technology Branch, told Mashable.
NASA seeks to determine the amount of solar and infrared radiation absorbed and reflected by ice clouds by applying the receiver to its ice-cloud imaging radiometer, Mashable reports.
