02/07/2024

Why NASA’s New Climate Satellite is Studying Clouds, Phytoplankton

These two things enormously influence human life

If you’re trying to spot a phytoplankton, it pays to get exceedingly close. Among the smallest life forms inhabiting both fresh and marine water, phytoplankton can measure as little as one micrometer—or one millionth of a meter. But little things can have a big impact. Blooms of phytoplankton, which are actually a form of microalgae, can spread hundreds of square miles, sometimes doing disastrous damage to fisheries, beaches, drinking water supplies, and entire aquatic ecosystems. To track so sprawling a scourge, you want to stand at a distance—675 km (420 mi.) worth of distance. That’s the altitude at which NASA’s new PACE satellite—short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and ocean Ecosystem— will orbit, after its planned launch on Feb. 6. 

Formally authorized in 2015, PACE will continue more than two generations’ worth of work NASA began in 1978 when it launched the Nimbus-7 satellite, the first ever spacecraft built to observe phytoplankton in the ocean and study its broader role in influencing the environment. But befitting a modern era in which we know so much more about environmental science as a whole and climate change in particular, PACE is a smarter, nimbler ship, one that will take the pulse of the planet in two important ways.

The first will directly address the phytoplankton question, and for government, industry and environmental scientists, that’s important for a number of reasons. The great living carpets can sometimes be beneficial—absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and fixing it at the base of the food chain, where other, larger organisms can have at it. But toxins produced by the algae can also kill fish and other aquatic life, and in humans can lead to diarrhea, paralysis, dizziness and memory loss, as well as abnormal liver function, vomiting and numbness.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.