"NASA's Twin Spacecraft: Exploring Earth's Extremes"

NASA is launching two small CubeSats as part of the PREFIRE mission in spring 2024 to gather data from Earth's polar regions, aiming to improve climate models and predictions. The satellites will measure heat loss from the poles using thermal infrared spectrometers, providing crucial information about how the planet's energy budget and climate are affected by changes in the Arctic and Antarctic. The mission, developed in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will help scientists better understand and project the impact of climate change on polar ecosystems, sea levels, and global weather patterns.