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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

19 Nov, 2020

7 Min Read

SENTINEL-6 SATELLITE

GS-III : S&T Space

SENTINEL-6 SATELLITE

The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite is designed to monitor oceans.

  • It was recently launched from California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
  • This is a part of the next mission dedicated to measuring changes in the global sea level.

What is the mission?

  • The mission is called the Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) mission.
  • It is designed to measure the height of the ocean, which is a key component in understanding how the Earth’s climate is changing.
  • It has been developed jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the EU, with contributions from France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).

What will the satellite do?

  • Provide measurements of global sea-level rise.
  • Send pulses to the Earth’s surface and measure how long they take to return to it, which will help scientists measure the sea surface height.
  • Long-term forecasting, for instance for seasonal conditions like El Niño and La Niña.

Source: TH

THIRTY METER TELESCOPE PROJECT

GS-III : S&T Space

THIRTY METER TELESCOPE PROJECT.

2020 Physics Nobel Laureate Prof. Andrea Ghez worked closely with Indian astronomers on the design of back-end instruments for the Thirty Meter Telescope Project.

About TMT:

  • It is an astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT).
  • It is an international project being funded by scientific organisations of Canada, China, India, Japan and USA.
  • Planned location is Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii.

Purpose:

  • The TMT is designed for near-ultraviolet to mid-infrared observations, featuring adaptive optics to assist in correcting image blur.
  • TMT will enable scientists to study fainter objects far away from us in the Universe, which gives information about the early stages of evolution of the Universe

Source: TH

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