NASA's most advanced space laser satellite blasted off on 15 September on a mission to track ice loss around the world and improve forecasts of sea level rise as the climate warms.
Cloaked in pre-dawn darkness, the $1 billion, half-tonne ICESat-2 launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 6:02 am (1302 GMT).
A launch commentator on NASA television said: ‘Three, two one, liftoff! Lifting ICESat-2 on a quest to explore the polar ice sheets of our constantly changing home planet.’
The launch marks the first time in nearly a decade that NASA has had a tool in orbit to measure ice sheet surface elevation across the globe.
The preceding mission, ICESat, launched in 2003 and ended in 2009.
The first ICESat revealed that sea ice was thinning, and ice cover was disappearing from coastal areas in Greenland and Antarctica.
In the intervening nine years, an aircraft mission called Operation IceBridge, has flown over the Arctic and Antarctic, taking height measurements of the changing ice.
But a view from space – especially with the latest technology – should be far more precise.
An update is particularly urgent since global average temperatures have climbed year after year, with four of the hottest years in modern times all taking place from 2014-2017.
Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist at NASA, said: ‘Loss of things like the sea ice that covers the Arctic ocean affects our weather, and loss of ice that covers Greenland and Antarctica raises sea level.’
He added that the satellite should reveal new insights into the ice in the deep interior of Antarctica, which is area of mystery to scientists.
The new laser will fire 10,000 times in one second, compared to the original ICESat which fired 40 times a second.
Measurements will be taken every 2.3ft (0.7m) along the satellite's path.
NASA said in a statement: ‘The mission will gather enough data to estimate the annual elevation change in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets even if it's as slight as 4mm - the width of a No. 2 pencil.’
Importantly, the laser will measure the slope and height of the ice, not just the area it covers.
Tom Neumann, deputy project scientist for ICESat-2, said: ‘Our data will allow ice sheet modelers to make better predictions of the future.’
Though powerful, the laser will not be hot enough to melt ice from its vantage point some 500km above the Earth, NASA said.
The mission is meant to last three years but has enough fuel to continue for ten, if mission managers decide to extend its life.
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
Why space is an essential part of modern military capabilities
Defence-secure mixed reality headsets can save hours, or even weeks, of travel time to fix defunct equipment or get subject experts effectively “on-site” where they are needed.
The Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare (DRAKE) counter-UAS (CUAS) systems are mounted and dismounted RF jammers.
Adarga’s Vantage information analysis tool is in service with the UK MoD and individual UK forces. It builds on the company’s Knowledge Platform which processes, organises and analyses open source material, as well as information held by the user’s military, security and intelligence services.
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