PREFIRE Mission Selected

NASA recently announced that our team will lead one of two principal investigator led Earth science missions selected under the Earth Ventures Instrument (EVI) program. Led by Professor L'Ecuyer, the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far InfraRed Experiment, or PREFIRE, will systematically map, for the first time, spectrally-resolved fluxes across the far infrared in the polar regions. The far infrared, consisting of wavelengths longer than 15 microns, accounts for more than 60% of the thermal emission at the Earth's poles. The spectral signature of this emission contains important information about surface characteristics, water vapor, and thin ice clouds in these regions that are rapidly evolving in response to global climate change. Despite the value of these measurements for improving our knowledge of polar climate, far infrared fluxes have never been systematically mapped from space. PREFIRE will fill this important observing gap and provide critical observational constraints for improving predictions of polar temperature changes, sea ice loss, and ice sheet melt that ultimately drives global sea level rise.

The official NASA announcement can be found here:  https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/new-nasa-space-sensors-to-address-key-earth-science-questions