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Hi, I'm Leigh and this is NASA Now.
Studying Earth's atmosphere from space.
We'll explore the science behind CERES
and see how measuring the energy that we are exposed
to every day can help scientists improve long-term
climate forecasting.
That's ahead.
First here's what's happening at NASA Now.
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NASA says it will launch a spacecraft
to an asteroid in 2016.
The mission called OSIRIS-Rex, which stands
for Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource
Identification Security Regolith Explorer,
will be the first mission to carry samples
from an asteroid back to Earth.
It will take four years for the spacecraft
to reach the near Earth asteroid named in 1999,
RQ36.The asteroid is roughly the size of five football fields.
That is 579 meters in diameter.
The samples plucked from the asteroid are likely
to represent a snapshot of our solar system's infancy.
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Now let's take a look at the past.
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October 1984, the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite was
deployed during the STS-41G mission
by NASA Astronaut Sally Ride.
ERBS was the first of three spacecraft to carry copies
of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment Sensor,
which investigated how energy from the sun is absorbed
and re-radiated by the Earth.
Understanding this process helps reveal patterns
in Earth's weather.
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Today our special guest is going
to tell us how electromagnetic energy that we are exposed
to everyday can help scientists improve climate forecasting.
Here with more information is Chief Engineer for CERES,
Gary Fleming, from the Langley Research Center.
Hi Gary, it is great to have you here with us today.
Maybe you can start
out by telling us what CERES is all about
Well, CERES is actually an acronym that stands for Clouds
and Earth's Radiant Energy System.
It's also a NASA program that was started in the late 1980's
and early 1990's for the purposes
of measuring Earth's radiation budget.
Now, Earth's radiation budget is that balance of energy
between the sunlight that comes into the Earth and the amount
of sunlight that is reflected from the Earth.
And there's a certain portion of sunlight that is absorbed
by the Earth and then readmitted as thermal energy.
And that radiation balance is a key driver in Earth's climate.
How does the CERES instrument detect that balance?
It's got three telescopes
and those telescopes each have an individual
thermistor bolometer.
Those thermistor bolometers interpret that radiation
as a change in temperature.
The instrument can measure the total amount
of radiation reflected and emitted from the Earth,
the amount of solar radiation that is reflected off
of the Earth's surface,
and it can measure the thermal radiation
that is emitted by the Earth.
I understand you have CERES instruments
on several satellites, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Currently we've got four instruments up on orbit flying.
We've got two instruments on NASA's Terra spacecraft
and that was launched in 1999.
We have two CERES instruments on NASA's Aqua spacecraft
and that was launched in 2002.
We are building another CERES instrument that will be launched
on the NPOESS Preparatory project spacecraft.
That's exciting for me.
That's going to launch in October this year.
How long the CERES is mission expected to last?
The CERES mission we hope to last quite a long time
because one of the things
about climate change is it's a very slow process.
And if you're a climate scientist trying
to understand trends or predictions for climate change,
you have to have observations over a long period of time.
So we expect to have CERES instruments flying
for the next 10 to 20 years.
This is all really fascinating Gary.
Let shift the focus to your life.
How did you become an engineer with NASA?
When I was four, five and six, I spent my afternoons
out in the backyard flying airplanes
and building model rockets and my brother
and I even built a wind tunnel in our basement one time
for a science project.
So right off the bat, I think I was aligned
with the NASA mission, whether I knew it or not at the time
and it's just something that has been ingrained
with me and I've enjoyed it.
Gary Fleming, Chief Engineer for the CERES,
thanks so much for joining us today.
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Did you know that Earth has two radiation belts?
The inner radiation belt is relatively compact,
extending perhaps one Earth radius above the equator.
Farther out is the outer radiation belt,
the most energetic of the two.
Unlike the inner belt,
this radiation belt produces large fluctuations,
especially during magnetic storms.
Now you know.
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Now it's time to check out what's up.
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Next time you look at the sun remember not all
of the sun's energy that enters Earth's atmosphere makes it
to the surface.
Thirty percent of it is actually reflected back into space
and the rest is absorbed by the land,
the oceans and the atmosphere.
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Ok teachers, now it's time
to help your students create a cloud in a bottle.
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Teachers, here's a great way
to bring atmosphere into your classroom.
Check out the meteorology content module
on the NASA Explorer Schools' Virtual Campus.
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Well that's it for NASA Now, join us next time
when we enter the frozen world of the Icing Research Tunnel.
We'll see you then on NASA Now.
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NASA Now comes to you from the Virtual Campus
at NASA Explorer Schools.