Aqua working

2002/06/28 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Ozeanografia

The Aqua satellite launched by NASA in May has been working since early June. The image above is that of marine surface temperatures and has been created from the data collected by the AMSR-E instrument of the Japanese Space Agency.

The AMSR-E instrument is innovative. On the one hand, it measures passive microwaves, that is, those that are naturally; it does not emit microwaves and measures the reflection as other appliances do. And on the other hand, it continues to function when the Earth is clouded.

In addition to temperature, the same instrument is used to measure rainfall, wind speed near the surface of the water, humidity and the surface covered by ice. With Aqua scientists want to better understand the water and climate cycle.

More information on the Aqua project website