Madrid. NASA developed a prototype instrument that could facilitate early monitoring of volcanic activity and air quality.
perched aboard a CubeSat At about 480 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the Nanosat Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observing System (Nachos), will use a compact hyperspectral imager to locate sources of trace gases in areas as small as 0.4 kilometers squares.
That system is part of Northrop Grumman’s 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
If successful, Nachos will be the smallest, highest-resolution space instrument dedicated to tracking atmospheric trace gases like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, paving the way for future Earth-observing systems that will help predict volcanic eruptions now. monitor air quality around specific cities, neighborhoods, and even individual power plants.
“A dormant volcano that has just woken up can emit sulfur dioxide before there is detectable seismic activity. That gives you the opportunity to identify a potentially erupting one before it explodes,” Steve Love, a researcher and task leader for the Space and Remote Sensing Group at the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a statement.
Atmospheric trace gases from natural and man-made sources provide scientists with unique insights into a wide variety of Earth systems. For example, nitrogen dioxide, often produced by burning fossil fuels, has a negative impact on human health and can serve as a proxy for carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change).
“When we recognize that these gases are present and can locate their sources on a scale of less than a kilometer, we have an opportunity to take action and minimize negative health outcomes,” Love added.
“There are excellent instruments in orbit that collect data on atmospheric trace gases, but they are expensive to produce and maintain. If we want to expand this scientific capacity, we will need a more cost-effective solution,” Love said.
At just 6 kilograms and 300 cubic centimeters, Nachos are well qualified to be that solution. In addition to an ultra-compact hyperspectral imager capable of collecting high-resolution data, it also uses built-in processing algorithms, which reduce both the size of its data transmissions and the amount of time it takes to retransmit those transmissions to Earth.
These algorithms work particularly well on small computers, giving Nachos a large amount of computing power without increasing the size or weight of the instrument.
It will remain aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus until May.
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