A “space weather” satellite with scientific objectives and instruments originally proposed and designed by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is now tentatively set to launch Monday afternoon from Florida.
The $340 million mission was originally scheduled to begin at 3:10 p.m. Pacific Time Sunday, but was held at less than three minutes before launch because of problems with tracking radar. The next opportunity to launch the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite is 3:07 p.m. Monday.
The principal mission of the Deep-Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, is to measure space weather. A suite of instruments will observe solar flares, solar wind, and the Sun’s magnetic field variations during solar flare activity. These phenomena can disrupt a wide variety of processes on Earth, from satellite communications and control to electrical distribution systems.
The Scripps instruments will measure the solar energy reflected back to space by Earth as well as the infrared radiation emitted by the planet. Such observations are essential to determine Earth’s energy budget, which is the fundamental driver of climate.
Scripps Distinguished Research Scientist Emeritus Francisco Valero said DSCOVR will be the first satellite to observe Earth from a vantage point 932,000 miles away known as the L1 Lagrangian point, where a satellite remains fixed between the sun and the Earth, providing a constant view of the entire sunlit portion of Earth.
“Two DSCOVR instruments will continuously observe the full, integrated and simultaneously spatially resolved Earth as it rotates around its axis. One of the instruments will see the entire planet all at once and measure total radiation (energy). The other instrument also sees the entire planet all at once but divided into four million pixels with a resolution of about 10-15 kilometers (6.3-9.3 miles) simultaneously. It’s a unique ability of DSCOVR,” Valero said.
Valero, who was originally the mission’s principal investigator, has been working on aspects of the mission for nearly 17 years. The satellite was completed in 2001, but put into storage because of a lack of funding.
