New NASA Mission to Provide Groundbreaking Measurements of Far-Infrared Wavelengths from Earth’s Poles to Enhance Climate and Weather Models

PREFIRE, a new mission by NASA, is set to provide groundbreaking measurements of far-infrared wavelengths emitted from Earth’s poles. These measurements can be used to enhance climate and weather models, which will aid people globally in coping with the impacts of climate change. The mission is being led by Tristan L’Ecuyer, principal investigator for PREFIRE at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, located at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is collaborating with NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program to provide the launch service for PREFIRE. This is part of NASA’s Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. The PREFIRE mission was a joint effort between NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with NASA JPL managing the mission and providing the spectrometers.

The CubeSats were built by Blue Canyon Technologies, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the data collected by the instruments. Rocket Lab USA Inc. in Long Beach, California is providing the launch services for PREF