{"id":152,"date":"2011-06-14T20:54:51","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T00:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/?p=152"},"modified":"2011-06-15T17:19:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T21:19:15","slug":"aquarius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"This is the dawning&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/index.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-153\" title=\"Aquarius Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Aquarius_Logo-s.jpg\" alt=\"Aquarius Logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"37\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last week, I took some time away from the never-ending slog that is my book prospectus to watch (via the Internet) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/aquarius\/news\/aquarius20110610.html\" target=\"_blank\">the liftoff of a Delta II rocket with the Aquarius\/SAC-D spacecraft on board<\/a>. Tense times, but everything went as planned and early telemetry suggests the Aquarius observatory is in good shape.<\/p>\n<p>When I first heard about Aquarius, I thought I was looking at the wrong project description. Measuring the salinity of the Earth&#8217;s ocean? NASA? From space? Yes, on all counts. Aquarius was designed to measure <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/overview-sss.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sea Surface Salinity<\/a> (SSS) as it varies over time and according to region. The project team hopes that by\u00a0tracking SSS from orbit, they will be able to detect variations in the Earth&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.gsfc.nasa.gov\/science-watercycle.html\" target=\"_blank\">water cycle<\/a>. \u00a0In the end, they hope to build a more complete model of the interrelationship between runoff, the freeze-thaw of sea ice,\u00a0and\u00a0evaporation\/precipitation over the ocean.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_154\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/aq_satellite_lg600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-154\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-154\" title=\"Schematic diagram of Aquarius\/SAC-D satellite\" src=\"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/aq_satellite_lg600-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"Schematic diagram of Aquarius\/SAC-D satellite\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/aq_satellite_lg600-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/aq_satellite_lg600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-154\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schematic diagram of Aquarius\/SAC-D satellite. Image credit: NASA<\/p><\/div>\n<p>How will the observatory accomplish these measurements? \u00a0The spacecraft&#8217;s primary instrument, which was contributed by Argentina&#8217;s Comisi\u00f3n Nacional deActividades Espaciales (CONAE),\u00a0consists of three\u00a0passive microwave radiometers that are super sensitive to salinity (1.413 GHz; L-band; this roughly correlates to 1\/8 teaspoon of salt in a gallon of water). The instrument also contains an active scatterometer that measures ocean waves that affect the precision of the salinity\u00a0measurement. Aquarius is projected to spend three years measuring SSS in 7-day cycles, after which time the data will be used to theorize on numerous pressing issues: \u00a0how ocean currents effect salinity\u00a0transport; SSS impact on tropical climate models and El Ni\u00f1o; SSS impact on oceans ubsurface dynamics; ice-ocean interaction; processes that maintain the ocean&#8217;s salinity; and so on.<\/p>\n<p>As usual, NASA has provided an abundance of interpretive aids and flashy images. \u00a0You can download a project overview in <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/pdfs\/mission_summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">print\/text<\/a>, or just watch the overview\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/AquariusUpdate01_20110512_video.htm\" target=\"_blank\">video<\/a>. If you&#8217;re in a hurry, you can take a quick look at the diagram of <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/pdfs\/foldout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the project&#8217;s research priorities and anticipated scientific outcomes<\/a>. If you&#8217;re talking about Aquarius in the classroom, you can print out educational wall posters <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/education-poster.html\" target=\"_blank\">in English<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/education-poster-spanish.html\" target=\"_blank\">in Spanish<\/a>. \u00a0The <a href=\"http:\/\/aquarius.nasa.gov\/gallery.html\" target=\"_blank\">gallery<\/a> for the project has schematics for launch, stowage and full deployment of the satellite&#8217;s instruments. I anticipate some new additions to this section now that the observatory is in orbit above Earth&#8217;s oceans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I took some time away from the never-ending slog that is my book prospectus to watch (via the Internet) the liftoff of a Delta II rocket with the Aquarius\/SAC-D spacecraft on board. Tense times, but everything went as planned and early telemetry suggests the Aquarius observatory is in good shape. When I first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-instruments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomy.snjr.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}