Embassy Information
Embassy Event
CONAE RECEIVES PRIMARY SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT FOR THE AQUARIUS/SAC-D SATELLITE MISSION FROM NASA
June 3, 2009
On June 3, CONAE received the primary scientific instrument from NASA for the “SAC-D” satellite being assembled at the INVAP plant in Bariloche as part of the Aquarius/SAC-D space mission. The Aquarius instrument and its associated ground support equipment arrived on a large C-17 military transport airplane from the U.S. military. “Satellite assembly is on schedule,” said Daniel Caruso, CONAE’s Project Manager for the “SAC-D” satellite development program, while Amit Sen, his counterpart at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, added that “our joint space mission launch is still set for May 2010.”
The launch will take place from Vandenberg Air Force Base located in Southern California on a Delta II rocket for a five-year mission. The satellite will perform a first-of-a-kind exploratory measurement that will help answer fundamental questions about how our planet works and how it may change in the future. Aquarius is the first satellite mission specifically designed to provide monthly global measurements of how sea water salinity varies at the ocean surface, which is an important element to study the links between ocean circulation and global water cycles.
Variations in ocean surface salinity are a key area of scientific uncertainty. Salinity variations modify the interaction between ocean circulation and the global water cycle, which in turn affects the ocean’s capacity to store and transport heat and regulate Earth's climate. Recent technological advances have provided the ability to examine these processes using remote sensing tools via satellite, and will bring about further understanding of how climate variations induce changes in the global ocean circulation and how our oceans respond to climate change and the water cycle.
