NASA’s low-cost Earth radiation satellite is expected to burn up in the atmosphere. Here we see the ATV Jules Verne spacecraft on destructive re-entry in 2008, taken by the DC-8 aircraft monitoring the re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. Credit: ESA
In early January, NASA’s retired Earth Radiation Monitoring Satellite (ERBS) is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere after nearly four decades in space. For 21 of those years, ERBS has been actively studying how the Earth absorbs and emits energy from the Sun and has made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide and aerosols.
As of Thursday, January 5, the Department of Defense predicted that the 5,400-pound satellite would re-enter the atmosphere at approximately 6:40 PM EST on Sunday, January 8 with an uncertainty of +/- 17 hours. NASA and the Department of Defense will continue to monitor reentry and update forecasts.
NASA expects most of the satellite to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, but some components are expected to survive re-entry. The risk of harming someone on Earth is very low – approximately 1 in 9,400.
NASA’s low-cost Earth Radiation Satellite (ERBS) is designed to study how energy from the Sun is absorbed and re-radiated by Earth. By understanding this process, researchers can learn more about Earth’s weather patterns. ERBS was launched on October 5, 1984 by the space shuttle Challenger and retired on October 14, 2005, making it one of the longest-running spacecraft missions. Although the spacecraft was only expected to operate for two years, it actually provided scientists with data on Earth’s ozone layer for more than 20 years. Credit: NASA
Launched by the space shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, the ERBS spacecraft was part of NASA’s three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. It carried three instruments, two to measure Earth’s radiative energy budget and one to measure stratospheric constituents, including ozone.
The energy budget, the balance between the amount of energy from the Sun that Earth absorbs or emits, is an important indicator of climate health, and understanding it can also help unravel weather patterns. Ozone concentrations in the stratosphere play an important role in protecting life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.
ERBS far exceeded its expected two-year operational life, operating until it was retired in 2005. Its observations helped researchers measure the effects of human activities on Earth’s radiation balance. NASA continued to build on the success of the ERBE mission with projects including the current suite of Cloud and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite instruments.
ERBS’s Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) made stratospheric measurements. SAGE II collected important data confirming that the ozone layer is declining on a global scale. This data helped shape the international agreement of the Montreal Protocol, which led to a dramatic worldwide decline in the use of ozone-depleting CFCs. Today, SAGE III on the International Space Station is collecting data on the health of the ozone layer.
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