When studying weather a satellite acts like a set of eyes for the meteorologist. That spectacular view just improved this past week when the NPOESS Preparatory Project satellite was launched into orbit this past Friday. NPP is an Earth-observing satellite that will collect detailed information about the earth’s atmosphere, land and oceans with its five new instruments on board. The hope is to use the data for short and long term weather forecasting, the spread of alga blooms in the oceans, and even track how arctic ice is affected by global warming. Dr. Jim Gleason, the NPP project scientist stated, “NPP’s observations will produce long-term datasets, which will help scientists make better models, which then lead to better predictions”. NPP will orbit the earth every 102 minutes, flying 512 miles above the surface, essentially watching over our changing earth.
