"Aurora will help answer three important scientific questions: Is the ozone layer that protects the Earth really recovering? What are the processes that control air quality? How is the Earth's climate changing?
16.7.2004
By: Avi Blizovsky
Illustration: NASA
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AURA, a mission designed to examine the health of the Earth's atmosphere, was successfully launched on Thursday around 03:02 West Coast Time, 13:02 Israel Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Buniag Delta 2 rocket. The satellite separated from the final stage of the rocket one hour and four minutes later, and the satellite entered orbit at an altitude of 705 kilometers.
The satellite is the last in the series of satellites used to observe the earth and it will allow us to help and protect the air we breathe.
"This moment symbolizes the great achievement for the NASA family and our international partners. "We are already looking forward to the moment when we can gain new insights into the important issue of global air quality, ozone restoration and climate change," said NASA's Assistant Director for Earth Sciences, Dr. Ghassem Asrar. "This mission will advance the exploration of Earth by NASA and will also improve our understanding of our neighbor to the solar system. Aurora joins its siblings, Terra, Aqua and ten other research satellites developed and launched by NASA over the past decade to study our home planet." added
"Aurora will help answer three important scientific questions: Is the ozone layer that protects the Earth really recovering? What are the processes that control air quality? How is the Earth's climate changing? NASA expects the first data from Aurora to flow within 30-60 days.
Aurora will also help scientists understand how the composition of the atmosphere affects climate change. The findings of this mission will help scientists better understand the processes linking local hazards to global air quality.
Each of the four instruments were designed to scan different aspects of the atmosphere. Aura will survey the atmosphere from the troposphere, where we live, through the stratosphere where the ozone layer that reaches Earth is located.
Aura launch The first series of earth observation satellites will be completed. The other satellites are Terra, which monitors the earth, and Aqua, which watches the water cycle in the oceans.
The launch was delayed for about four days, first due to a malfunction in the third stage of the rocket, and then due to a malfunction in the solid state recording device on board the satellite.
The launch of the Ora satellite for ozone research has been postponed again due to a malfunction in the recording device
Update 13/7/04 time 20:00
The launch of the Aura spacecraft, a NASA satellite designed to test the health of the Earth's atmosphere, has been delayed for the second time. A fault with the solid state recording device on board the spacecraft caused the countdown to stop about 30 minutes before the planned launch on Tuesday (13/7/04).
The original launch scheduled for Sunday was postponed due to a malfunction in the rocket's nose cone - the place where the satellite is located.
Update 11 / 7 / 04
The American space agency has delayed the launch of the Aura satellite planned to test the health of the Earth's atmosphere.
The launch that was scheduled for Sunday 11/7 was postponed for two days at this stage due to technical problems. This is what senior officials at NASA said.
The ozone protector - the "Aura" satellite. will check if there is a mix between the "good" and "bad" ozone
NASA is about to launch a satellite that will perform the most detailed monitoring ever conducted of the state of the atmosphere - starting with the upper ozone layer, which protects against solar radiation, and ending with the air near the surface of the ground. The satellite, "Aura", which weighs 2,967 kilograms and costs 785 million dollars, will be launched on Saturday and enter an orbit at an altitude of 133 kilometers above the earth's surface. It will scan the atmosphere for at least six years.
Aura is the third and final addition to NASA's "Earth Observing System", the first series of satellites designed to study the processes affecting the Earth's climate. The Terra satellite, which monitors processes occurring on the ground, was launched in 1999; Aqua, which tracks the Earth's oceans and water cycle, was launched in 2002.
The satellite carries four instruments that will study the atmosphere and monitor the ozone gas in its good and bad forms. The ozone in the stratosphere, which is in the upper atmosphere, blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun. In the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere that starts at the surface of the ground and reaches up to a height of about ten kilometers, the ozone created during combustion is a major pollutant.
Between the years 2000-1980, ozone in the stratosphere was reduced by 3%, and Aura will test whether the global ban on the use of chemicals that damage the gas results in the recovery of the ozone layer. The satellite will also help researchers to understand if there is a mixing between the "good" ozone in the stratosphere and the polluting ozone near the surface of the ground and to stand up for the natural processes in the atmosphere that reduce pollution. Another mission of Aura will be to help better understand the effect of aerosols, particles in the air that block some of the sun's radiation, on the Earth's climate.
In the next phase of its mission, Aura will become part of a planned fleet of satellites observing the Earth. The fleet is called "A Train" because the Aqua satellite is supposed to lead the array of satellites while Aura is supposed to be at the other end. Between these two there will be four satellites, American and French. The satellites will pass over a certain area one after the other, and the data that will flow from them will make it possible to draw a picture of the Earth's changing climate.
Warren Leary, Haaretz, Walla News!
