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Jason-3 satellite to examine climate change, oceans

Monday, 18 January 2016 1:29 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 18 January 2016 1:37 AM ]

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is shown before its launch, on January 17, 2016. (AP)

Despite being a crucial player in the global climate change, oceans are among the least known and studied of the Earth system components due to extreme difficulty in probing their deep layers. But instead of observing them by diving deep, think of an alternative way to monitor them from an orbital stance via high-tech satellites revolving around the planet. This is the idea pushed forward by NASA and executed by the private spaceflight company SpaceX.

After successfully putting Jason-3, a $180-million US-European satellite, into the Earth’s orbit on Sunday, the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket failed to land safely on a droneship’s platform in the Pacific Ocean, broke a support leg and tipped over.

The carrier rocket had lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles, in a foggy and cloudy weather at 10:42 am local time (1842 GMT).

Its satellite, will mainly monitor the topography of the ocean floor, examine global sea surface rise, observe tropical cyclones, and help seasonal and coastal forecast during its five-year-long mission.

The botched landing marked the California-based company’s fourth such failed attempt to save carrier rockets, disrupting its plan to reduce launch costs by recycling them instead of letting them fall into the ocean.

*The Falcon 9 rocket, owned by SpaceX, is seen toppled on the ocean landing pad, on January 17, 2016. (Elon Musk)*

The founder and owner of SpaceX, Elon Musk, however, wrote on his twitter account that “at least the pieces were bigger this time! Won’t be last RUD [Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly], but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing.”

“Regarding the climate problem, it's now generally understood that we've entered into a new era, a new norm, marked by rapid and persistent changes to the entire whole-Earth system. But what may not be widely understood is the role of the ocean in this complex process,” said Laury Miller, Jason-3 lead scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in a NASA press conference on Friday.

“More than 90 percent of all the heat being trapped in the Earth's system ... is actually going into the ocean. This makes the ocean perhaps the biggest player in the climate change story,” he added.

The Jason-3 satellite is the joint production of NOAA, NASA, the French space agency CNES, and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

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