Lasers. In. Space.
NASA’s got ‘em! Next year we launch a satellite with lasers, @NASA_ICESat2, to measure Earth’s changing ice #NASASocial
To measure the height of ice, ICESat-2’s instrument ATLAS will send laser light to Earth, and time how long it takes to get back
The satellite will send 10,000 laser pulses EVERY SECOND to Earth. 1 pulse = 300 trillion photons. That’s trillion with a 'T.'
Laser photons would be swamped by sunlight, so @NASA_ICESAT2 filters out everything but its own bright green shade
To cover more ground (& ice & forests & oceans), the instrument’s laser splits into six beams.
The six laser beams are arranged in three pairs, which allows scientists to estimate the cross-track slope of the surface below.
Hold it steady: the ATLAS instrument aboard ICESat-2 has an automatic motorized mirror that keeps the laser stable and pointed correctly.
The satellite will take 1,387 different paths over Earth each season, creating a dense grid of data especially over the poles.
Since each orbit repeats every 91 days, scientists will be able to track how the ice changes between the seasons. #NASASocial!
With all these data points, ICESat-2 can estimate the annual height change of ice sheets to within 4 mm – the width of a No. 2 pencil.
Engineers take ICESat-2 to the extreme – sometimes going big, sometimes small, but always keeping it precise to measure ice (End thread)
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