SpaceX will study the impact of atmospheric dust on the climate

A SpaceX spacecraft is carrying an instrument to the International Space Station to track and map mineral dust traveling through the atmosphere from arid regions, which will help better understand its impact on climate, role in warming and cooling of the planet. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center participates in the project.

impact on climate

The resupply capsule Dragon of SpaceXcarrying more than 1,500 kilograms of science experiments, crew supplies and other cargo, is already on its way to the International Space Station (ISS, for its acronym in English) after its launch this Friday at 02:44 a.m. (Spanish peninsular time) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA).

The spacecraft was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket as part of Elon Musk’s company’s 25th commercial resupply services mission for the POT. It is scheduled to dock autonomously with the ISS on Saturday and remain there for about a month.

New experiments coming to the space station include some to study the effects of microgravity on the aging immune system, soil microbial communities, cell-free protein production and off-Earth concrete manufacturing, as well as a meteorological study of high school students.

EMIT project on mineral dust

But the star experiment is YoInvestigation of Sources of Mineral Dust on the Earth’s Surface (EMITfor its acronym in English), developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from NASA. Incorporates a imaging spectrometer to measure the mineral composition of dust in arid regions of our planet.

Mineral dust that is dispersed in the air can travel long distances and affect the Earth’s climate, weather, and vegetation, among other factors. For example, the one that contains dark minerals that absorb sunlight can heat an area, while the light-colored one can cool it. When it blows it also affects air quality, conditions on the land surface – such as the rate of snow melt – and the health of phytoplankton in the ocean.

The investigation will collect images for a year to generate maps of the mineral composition in the regions of the Earth that produce this dust. The resulting mapping could advance our understanding of its effects on human populations, both now and in the future.

Participation of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center

“Dust aerosols created by wind erosion of arid surfaces are among the largest contributors to the global particulate load in the atmosphere, determining climate effects over large areas of the Earth”Explain Carlos Perez Garcia-Pando, researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) participating in the mission. These effects on the planet’s climate are critically dependent on regional variations in the mineral composition of dust, which are not well represented in current models of the Earth system.

“In this context, the EMIT project has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift by enabling the production of an accurate and near-global database of surface mineralogy that improves the analyzes underpinning current mineralogical atlases used in modeling. that calculate the climatic effects. By carefully measuring the minerals that make up the dust, EMIT will help answer whether dust aerosols warm or cool the atmosphere, as well as how this might change in future climate scenarios.”Garcia-Pando concludes.

Font: POT, BSC-CNS, SINC Agency,

Reference article: https://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Nueva-mision-de-la-NASA-para-estudiar-el-dust-atmosferico-y-su-impacto-en-el-clima