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NASA's salt-seeking instrument gets a silvery blanket

Date:
January 24, 2011
Source:
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Summary:
Technicians from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., completed the installation of thermal blankets on NASA's Aquarius instrument last week, as the Aquarius/Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) spacecraft continued functional performance tests at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Laboratório de Integração e Testes -- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, or LIT-INPE) in Sáo José dos Campos.
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Technicians from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., completed the installation of thermal blankets on NASA's Aquarius instrument last week, as the Aquarius/Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) spacecraft continued functional performance tests at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Laboratório de Integração e Testes -- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, or LIT-INPE) in Sáo José dos Campos.

Activities are proceeding on schedule for shipment of the spacecraft to California's Vandenberg Air Force Base in late March for a launch in early June.

Aquarius/SAC-D is an international mission involving NASA and Argentina's space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Aquarius, the primary instrument on the mission, was built jointly by JPL and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. It will provide monthly global maps of how the concentration of dissolved salt (known as salinity) varies on the ocean surface. Salinity is a key tracer for understanding the ocean's role in Earth's water cycle and understanding ocean circulation.

By measuring ocean salinity from space, Aquarius will provide new insights into how the massive natural interplay of freshwater moving among the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences Earth's ocean circulation, weather and climate.

For more information on Aquarius, visit: http://www.aquarius.nasa.gov .


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Materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "NASA's salt-seeking instrument gets a silvery blanket." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 January 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110124182854.htm>.
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2011, January 24). NASA's salt-seeking instrument gets a silvery blanket. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 5, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110124182854.htm
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "NASA's salt-seeking instrument gets a silvery blanket." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110124182854.htm (accessed November 5, 2024).

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